The Mediacracy - How Journalism Went Bad
By Prorev.com Editor Sam Smith
YOUR EDITOR has occasionally noted that when he started out in what was then the trade of journalism, over half the
reporters in this country only had a high school education. Ben Bagdikian, a bit older, describes in his memoir, Double
Vision, an even less pretentious craft:
"Before the war a common source of the reporter was an energetic kid who ran newsroom errands for a few years before he
was permitted to accompany the most glamorous character on the staff, the rough-tough, seen-it-all, blood-and-guts
police reporter. Or else, as in my case, on a paper with low standards, reporters started off as merely warm bodies that
could type and would accept $18 a week with no benefits.
"Prewar journalists had their talents and occasional brilliances, but the initial demand on me and my peers was the
ability to walk fast, talk fast, type fast, and never break a deadline. And to be a male of the species. Some of us on
that long-ago paper had college educations but we learned to keep quiet about it; there was a suspicion that a degree
turned men into sissies. Only after the war did the US Labor Department's annual summary of job possibilities in
journalism state that a college degree is 'sometimes preferred.'"
Even in sophisticated Washington ten years later, I kept quiet about my Harvard degree as I learned the trade. Then the
trade stopped being a trade as not only a college degree but a masters in journalism became increasingly desired.
Further, journalists - with the help of things like the Washington Post's new Style section - began joining the power
structure by increasingly writing themselves into it.
Then came yet another transition: the journalist as professional was replaced by the journalist as corporate employee,
just another bureaucratic pawn in organizations that increasingly had less to do with journalism.
By standard interpretations the trend - at least from uneducated tradesman to skilled professional - was a step forward.
But there is a problem with this interpretation. First, with each step the journalist moved further socially and
psychologically from the reader or viewer. Reporters increasingly viewed their stories from a class perspective alien to
many of those they were writing for, a factor that would prove far more important than the ideological biases about
which one hears so many complaints.
This doesn't mean that because of education, these reporters needed to lose the reader's perspective and the best ones
certainly didn't. But it meant that they had to be aware of the problem and learn how to compensate for it. Too few were
or did.
One reason was the second problem: as journalism was increasingly learned academically instead of vocationally, the
great curse of the campus descended, namely the abstraction of the real. Reporters, regardless of their perspective or
biases, became removed from their stories. Instead, they were merely 'educated' about them. And the news stopped being
as real.
Finally, the corporatization of news meant that everyone in the system from reporter to CEO reacted to things with the
caution of an institutionalized employee. Thus, the decline of investigative journalism as it was too much of risk for
all involved.
In short, journalism has become more scholarly, more snobbish, and more scared and, in the process increasingly has
separated itself from the lives of its readers.
**********
LESS THAN THREE PERCENT OF TALK SHOW GUESTS ARE BLACK AND NOT POWELL, RICE OR JUAN WILLIAMS
DARRYL FEARS, WASHINGTON POST - Only 8 percent of the guests on the major Sunday morning talk shows over the past 18
months were African Americans, with three people accounting for the majority of those appearances, according to a new
study by the National Urban League.
Black guests -- newsmakers, the journalists who questioned them and experts who offered commentary -- appeared 176 times
out of more than 2,100 opportunities, according to the study, which is scheduled for release today. But 122 of those
appearances were made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell, and Juan
Williams, a journalist and regular panel member on "Fox News Sunday.". . .
Barbara Levin, senior communications director for NBC News, said that "Meet the Press" interviews "the same newsmakers
who dominate the front pages and op-ed pages of every newspaper in America, including The Washington Post." Studies have
shown poor minority representation in newspapers. A 2002 study by the Poynter Institute, "News and Race: Models of
Excellence," cited research that news about minorities accounts for 5 to 7 percent of all content, even though African
Americans and Latinos represent more than 30 percent of the U.S. population.
**********
HOW YOUR EDITOR HELPED JUAN WILLIAMS ON HIS WAY
BACK WHEN Marion Barry was still a subject of national interest, Charles Peters of the Washington Monthly asked me to do
a piece on him. I told him that I would be glad to but that I wasn't going to trash Barry. And I suggested a headline,
"Failing the Faith." A few days later, Peters cancelled the lunch at which we were to discuss the article and never got
back to me. The next thing I knew, the Washington Monthly ran an article by Juan Williams trashing Marion Barry and
using a variety of the headline I had suggested. Williams was on his way.
- Sam Smith
**********
NEWSPAPERS PREFER 'POO' TO 'TURD'
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER - Is "poo" a less offensive term than "turd"? Is tweaking a liberal Democrat like Howard Dean more
acceptable to some newspaper editors than tweaking conservative Republicans like George W. Bush and Karl Rove? Whatever
the reason, no newspapers -- to Universal Press Syndicate's knowledge -- pulled or edited Wednesday's "Prickly City"
strip that used the word "poo." Ten to 12 papers pulled or edited Tuesday and Wednesday's "Doonesbury" comic mentioning
"Turd Blossom" -- Bush's nickname for Rove. . .
Scott Stantis, whose 2004-launched "Prickly City" comic runs in 75-plus papers, had his Winslow animal character say in
Wednesday's strip: "Why do you dislike Howard Dean so much, Carmen?" She replies: "Believe it or not, Winslow, I want a
two-sided debate of ideas. An adult voice to thoughtfully and vigorously challenge the majority party. Not some
freak-show monkey boy who throws his own poo." To which Winslow says: "You don't watch a lot of cable news, do you?"
**********
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT
ELANA BERKOWITZ AND AMY SCHILLER, CAMPUS PROGRESS - When you were developing your super straight guy look and sound,
which actual media personalities did you model yourself after?
SC: First of all, I am a super straight guy. I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, and I am perfectly comfortable in
blue blazers, khaki pants, Brooks Brothers suits and regimental striped ties. It's just genetic. I love a cocktail party
with completely vacuous conversation, because I grew up in it.
But in terms of who I channel, my natural inclination was Stone Phillips, who has the greatest neck in journalism. And
he's got the most amazingly severe head tilt at the end of tragic statements, like 'there were no…survivors.' He just
tilts his head a bit on that 'survivors' as if to say 'It's true. It's sad. There were none.'
CP: Plus, his name has that sort of Republican porn star vibe to it.
SC: Exactly, if it were Stone Fill-Up then it would really be a porn star name.
And then I also used Geraldo Rivera, because he's got this great sense of mission. He just thinks he's gonna change the
world with this report. He's got that early seventies hip trench coat 'busting this thing wide open' look going on. So
those two guys. And Peter Mansbridge obviously. . .
CP: You do 'This Week in God.' Which is one of our favorite segments. You're from a South Carolinian religious family
and you are a church-goer yourself. Why did you choose to focus so heavily on religion right now?
SC: We used to do This Week in God only once a month, but if there was room on the show we could do it every week. There
is so much religion in public life. It has become acceptable for court decisions to be based on the Gospel. There's so
much religion in public life. It's a religious pandemic. It's everywhere. It's not a needle in a haystack. We throw away
stories every week. I know we're not a secular state like France which has it in their constitution, but boy I wish our
founding fathers had been at little clearer in that First Amendment.
CP: We are living in a pretty absurd time. Are there ever any news incidents that were so absurd you can't make them
funny?
SC: Well, obviously real tragedy, like the London bombing, is off limits. No one wants to do comedy about that. But I
would say there's almost nothing that can't be mocked on a certain level as long as it doesn't involve loss of life or
deep human tragedy. I don't think we ever looked at something and said that's too ridiculous to make more ridiculous.
Contrary to what people may say, there's no upper limit to stupidity. We can make everything stupider.
CP: Speaking of stupid, who are some the most unintentionally funny figures in American politics?
SC: You know Rick Santorum? The one who compared being gay to fucking a dog? That's a good one. Who else is good? The
entire Supreme Court is pretty funny when they denied medical marijuana when there's a man named William Rehnquist who
wrote a dissenting opinion, who's the Chief Justice who happens to be dying of cancer. That must have been a pretty
hilarious conversation back in the chambers: 'Listen Bill, we know you're dying of cancer but we just can't have you
rolling a joint!' That must have been a great conversation. . .
CP: How do you keep finding people to interview on 'The Daily Show' who either don't know the interview is satirical or
are willing to play along?
SC: Everyone knows what the show is at this point, but they don't understand where we're going with the conversation. I
talk to them for hours and you're seeing the 3-4 questions that are important to my segment. They don't necessarily
perceive a 3 minute edit out of a 3 hour conversation. I don't make a big deal out of being funny, and then we do our
best to bring 'em back alive in editing.
FROM UNDERNEWS
FROM THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
EDITED BY SAM SMITH
Since 1964, Washington's most unofficial source
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