I like this one a lot–it’s nice to finally see some discussion (in this case, on NBC’c comment section) about the fact that journalism as we know is in mid-death agony.
Professional standards? I suppose these are the standards of news corporations. Does anyone under the age of 50 actually still believe in the objectivity of a Fortune 500 company? Journalists censor themselves every day to keep their jobs. Section editors are evaluated by executive editors based on how effectively the outlet markets news
to the middle-class consumer. This is how newspapers and news channels increase ad revenue and raise the price of corporate stock.For a reporter to keep a job depends on his/her maintaining “access” to highly-placed sources, which means having to soften critical news and flatter them whenever necessary. This is how wars are sold — wars on “crime,” “drugs,” “welfare,” “illegal immigrants,” and sovereign nations. Reporters don’t have to like it — there are many who despise it — but they either do it or look for another job.
Proponents of the corporate news model: Have no fear! Young reporters will learn all too quickly to ape “objectivity” on the job — or they’ll get a pink slip. It’s the soul- rushing reality of an industry in decline.
Why not teach students to think critically about the moribund condition of the “Fourth Estate”? Professors can fortify that conviction of which draws all young people to journalism — the desire to report with integrity on powerful institutions, to take risks and uncover the story which equips working men and women to better understand the world around them. But instead we find that students like the editors at The Recorder are being “professionalized.” They are learning how to dispose of capable journalists whose convictions cross the corporate line. They are learning how to reproduce the whole rotten cycle.
