Following on from Friday’s post, here’s what Frank Rich wrote about the death of journalism in yesterday’s New York Times. I would note, however, that Frank still has a job and a paper to give him one, and maybe that’s why he soft-pedals the idiocy of management…
“IF you wanted to pick the moment when the American news business went on suicide watch, it was almost exactly three years ago. That’s when Stephen Colbert, appearing at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, delivered a monologue accusing his hosts of being stenographers who had, in essence, let the Bush White House get away with murder (or at least the war in Iraq). To prove the point, the partying journalists in the Washington Hilton ballroom could be seen fawning over government potentates — in some cases the very “sources” who had fed all those fictional sightings of Saddam Hussein’s W.M.D.
“Colbert’s routine did not kill. The Washington Post reported that it “fell flat.” The Times initially did not even mention it. But to the Beltway’s bafflement, Colbert’s riff, went viral overnight ultimately to have a marathon run as the most popular video on iTunes. The cultural disconnect between the journalism establishment and the public it aspires to serve could not have been more vividly dramatized.
“The bad news about the news business has accelerated ever since. Newspaper circulations and revenues are in free fall. Legendary brands from The Los Angeles Times to The Philadelphia Inquirer are teetering. The New York Times Company threatened to close The Boston Globe if its employees didn’t make substantial sacrifices in salaries and benefits. Other papers died. The reporting ranks on network and local news alike are shriveling. You know it’s bad when the Senate is moved, as it was last week, to weigh in with hearings on “The Future of Journalism.” (Click here for more)
“IF you wanted to pick the moment when the American news business went on suicide watch, it was almost exactly three years ago. That’s when Stephen Colbert, appearing at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, delivered a monologue accusing his hosts of being stenographers who had, in essence, let the Bush White House get away with murder (or at least the war in Iraq). To prove the point, the partying journalists in the Washington Hilton ballroom could be seen fawning over government potentates — in some cases the very “sources” who had fed all those fictional sightings of Saddam Hussein’s W.M.D.
“Colbert’s routine did not kill. The Washington Post reported that it “fell flat.” The Times initially did not even mention it. But to the Beltway’s bafflement, Colbert’s riff, went viral overnight ultimately to have a marathon run as the most popular video on iTunes. The cultural disconnect between the journalism establishment and the public it aspires to serve could not have been more vividly dramatized.
“The bad news about the news business has accelerated ever since. Newspaper circulations and revenues are in free fall. Legendary brands from The Los Angeles Times to The Philadelphia Inquirer are teetering. The New York Times Company threatened to close The Boston Globe if its employees didn’t make substantial sacrifices in salaries and benefits. Other papers died. The reporting ranks on network and local news alike are shriveling. You know it’s bad when the Senate is moved, as it was last week, to weigh in with hearings on “The Future of Journalism.” (Click here for more)
The secret word is Obsolete
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8 comments:
nothing Frank Rich says here explains why Jimmy Olsen in drag gets me excited
Senate hearings about The Future of Journalism will only get us enhanced copyright laws and more protectionism, neither of which I'm looking forward to. (To neither of which I'm looking forward? I'll never get a job on the Grey Lady with grammar skills like this.)
Newspapers aren't doomed - their business model, with capital-intensive printing presses and once-a-day distribution, is doomed, but newspapers themselves will be fine.
See e.g. http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/02/misreading_news.php
Dunno about Jimmy Olsen but Superman in drag might get me excited.
The huge reality that everyone's tiptoeing around is that capitalism is doomed and may expire a lot sooner that we think.
Woa! The wv is ovendie!
capitalism can't die because along with totalitarianism, it's the closest political/economic analogue to authentic human nature. Anyway they're all abstract constructs, the economic isms. What we have here is a television i.e., mediaocracy.
go get a TV dinner and cook it up.
It's important that you believe me
Would you hate me if I didn't, hc?
it can't happen here
It already did.
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