What is a journalist? OT

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Patrick Sawyer

climber
Originally California, now Ireland
Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 12, 2017 - 08:19am PT
I was going to post this on the "Callie" thread in response to SusanA, but…

So, we all read and we all write. Some of us keep journals.

But a journalist.

In the past journalists were the guardians of “truth”, with exceptions. The Fourth Estate.

Yet, for example, we had the Yellow Press, and the Spanish-American War, egged on by the press. (My grandfather was a Rough Rider. That “war” was about land grab, IMO.)

And it was the “press” that made a difference. Same for WW1, WW2 and most recently the press looking to bring down Trump (If you believe that, and it is scary, many do) or the press who reports the “excesses” of Trump and are immediately deemed “Fake News”.

The same news that got Trump elected, in some ways.

(I could go into the Spanish-American war at lengths, a subject a novel will address, next year.)

Journalism has never been “clean” of bias or subjectivity.

But the good ones know how to separate truth and reality from falsehoods.

I am a student and practitioner of the media.

Some may call us guardians of truth, and some may all us c#&%s.

I know what I talk and write about.


Oops a delivery has just come, back on this topic. Groceries first.

Don’t stop believing
Chaz

Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
Dec 13, 2017 - 05:12am PT
Journalism is dead.

At least we were here when it happened, and we got to see it die.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Dec 13, 2017 - 08:35am PT
I think there are still any number of astute and principled print journalists out there but I cannot fathom the pressures they’re under. As for TV, the only name that jumps to mind is Christiane Amanpour. But then I’m swayed by my love of listening to her massage the English language, regardless of what she’s saying.
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Dec 13, 2017 - 09:07am PT
We forget so quickly. Or perhaps it's just that the past doesn't exist for most people.

There is more news and analysis available today, by far, than there has ever been. Are you bothered that some sources are controlled by people who allow only one viewpoint? Well, there are a thousand alternatives.

Compare that to the good old days. Before the introduction of radio, the only source for most people was the local newspaper. Which was usually owned by someone with a viewpoint. But with the introduction of the new media, first radio, then TV, and now the internet, it became possible to learn more about what was going on around you.

Yes, it can be hard to filter the bought-and-paid-for nonsense from the objective reporting, and yes, it's easy to point at a few easy targets and shout "Fake News", but anyone who is willing to look around will find that real journalism is far from dead.

(And before you ask, yes, I make my living as "a journalist".)
TWP

Trad climber
Mancos, CO & Bend, OR
Dec 13, 2017 - 11:23am PT
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

- First sentence of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.


I offer this quote as counterpoint to the upthread observation:

"Journalism is dead.

At least we were here when it happened, and we got to see it die."


In fact, today's times are no better and no worse for journalism than any other time in history. Journalism has already suffered a thousand deaths equal to today's - and a thousand rebirths from said death.

At all times, the struggle to find and define the truth involves a competition between alternative versions of reality - and all the nuanced variations of TRUTH which lie along a huge bell curve from one extreme to another.

We love feeling today - our time - is unique and special - because we want of our lives to be unique and special. How better to do this than imagine we are in those special times before the "end of time." Belief in the nearness of an apocalypse makes human feel important and special to have been alive IN THESE TIMES.

Hence, we exaggerate the importance, unique and distinctiveness of the crisis and tumult of our times. But I am beginning to repeat myself, so I sign off.

Get a grip and go do something important. Like climb a rock.

Or read a good history of the United States and see how journalism and folly have held sway throughout our history. You might then realize there has never been any golden age of wisdom in any epoch of U.S. history - even in the times of our supposedly so sane and wonderful Founding Fathers.
Ward Trotter

Trad climber
Dec 13, 2017 - 11:37am PT
"Journalism" in the classic sense defined as a neutral search and then uncovering of the truth no longer exists.

Journalism has become a casualty of the era of baby boomer leftism (experiencing it's "senior power phase") which owns the mainstream news and has conscripted it to advance it's values and agenda.

It is acting in tandem with elitist forces in government and is employing the widespread lie to scandalize it's opponents and cover up it's broader propaganda aims .

TWP

Trad climber
Mancos, CO & Bend, OR
Dec 13, 2017 - 12:12pm PT
Journalism has not BECOME anything other than what it has always been. "There is nothing new under the sun."

But I am repeating myself.
WBraun

climber
Jan 28, 2018 - 07:53am PT
But the good ones know how to separate truth and reality from falsehoods.

You don't know what the actual truth is because all the dirty secrets are buried behind the walls of "National Security".

domngo

climber
Canada
Jan 28, 2018 - 08:10am PT
the term now is content providers. we are all just content providers.
clinker

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
Jan 28, 2018 - 08:36am PT
A person who starts off reporting and investigating and most often ends up peddling. The news made Trump newsworthy for ratings and here we are.
Yury

Mountain climber
T.O.
Jan 28, 2018 - 02:28pm PT
Patrick Sawyer:
In the past journalists were the guardians of “truth”
This statement is just lame propaganda.
Journalists never were "guardians of truth".
From the beginning of time journalists were presenting a newspaper publisher's vision of the world.
Journalists have freedom only during a revolution, when old censorship order is destroyed and a new censorship order is not created yet.

There was no recent change in what is and is not allowed in American MSM.
MSM is the same propaganda machine as before.
Current perception that journalism has changed is due to availability of previously non-publishable information on social media.

At the same time I suspect that current freedom of social media is a temporary situation.
Recently companies like Facebook and Google were "educated" by US Congress and explained the importance of proper censorship (using purported Putin's interference as an excuse).

I expect that in a few years Facebook etc. will be better managed and alternative information (disapproved by States Department etc.) won't be available there anymore. :(

SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Jan 30, 2018 - 07:43pm PT
There's a lot of dead ones down in ol mehico. . .
Ken M

Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
Jan 30, 2018 - 08:07pm PT
Journalism has become a casualty of the era of baby boomer leftism (experiencing it's "senior power phase") which owns the mainstream news and has conscripted it to advance it's values and agenda.

In fact, most (but not all) journalism is owned by conservative companies.
Ballo

Trad climber
Jan 30, 2018 - 08:21pm PT
Uncle Walter.

Barf. He was an establishment shill of the time. Gulf of Tonkin anyone?

I've never seen a journalist with a TV desk job.

Real journalists:
Seymour Hersh
Justin Raimondo
John Pilger
and yes:
Messages 1 - 14 of total 14 in this topic
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