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Journalists Worried About News Quality, Not Plagarism [And "We're Not Tough Enough On Bush"]
AP ^ | 5/23/04

Posted on 05/23/2004 4:50:37 PM PDT by 11th Earl of Mar

Today: May 23, 2004 at 13:01:37 PDT

Journalists Worried About News Quality, Not Plagarism By WILL LESTER ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) - Journalists are growing more concerned that bottom-line financial pressures are "seriously hurting" the quality of news coverage, according to a survey taken at a time when news organizations face increased competition for readers and viewers.

A majority of national and local journalists say they think financial pressures are hurting coverage, said the survey released Sunday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

"Journalists are in a glummer mood than we've found them in the past," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. "That view is much more prevalent where cutbacks have happened."

The number of national journalists who think bottom-line financial pressures are hurting coverage was 66 percent this year, compared with about 40 percent in a Pew survey from 1995.

Just under six in 10 local journalists were more worried about financial pressures hurting quality, compared with one-third in 1995.

More than half of the executives at national news organizations said increased business pressures are "just changing the way news organizations do things."

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said a news media study earlier this year found many news organizations have cut staff.

"We found that most sectors of the news media, other than online and ethnic media, are losing audience because there is so much more competition," Rosenstiel said.

About half of those whom Pew surveyed from newspapers and magazines said they have seen reductions in the size of their newsroom staff in the past three years.

Despite these concerns about cut, about seven in 10 news professionals say the management in their news operation is excellent or good.

National journalists were more likely than a decade ago to say there are too many factual errors in coverage, while local reporters were less inclined to say that was a problem.

A majority of journalists of all backgrounds and different type of operations said they do not think plagiarism is more widespread now, despite widely publicized cases in the past year.

The survey found a reduction in the number of journalists who think news reporters are too cynical and many now think they are too timid.

More than half of national journalists say the press has not been critical enough of President Bush. Local journalists were about evenly split between thinking the press is not critical enough or is fair in its treatment of the president.

Nearly eight in 10 in both the national and local news media say that not enough attention is paid to complex issues, similar to Pew's findings on this question in 1995 and 1999.

A majority of news professionals say the emergence of the Internet has made journalism better, especially because it has improved research methods.

The survey was taken from March 10 through April 20 of 547 national and local journalists, both print and broadcast. The sample was chosen from national directories of staffers, editors and executives at newspapers, magazines, wire services, national networks and local television stations from the 100 largest markets.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: journalism
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1 posted on 05/23/2004 4:50:40 PM PDT by 11th Earl of Mar
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To: 11th Earl of Mar

Get tougher on President Bush and go out of business faster.Rage on,Rush is right less people are listening.


2 posted on 05/23/2004 5:00:39 PM PDT by magua
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
The gates are down. The lights are flashing. But the train's not coming.

They still don't get it.

3 posted on 05/23/2004 5:00:53 PM PDT by kcar (www.TheUNsucks.com)
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
The see WHAT is happening (loss of customers) but they don't see WHY (liberal bias). They DID come close to reality in the following passage: "We found that most sectors of the news media, other than online and ethnic media, are losing audience because there is so much more competition,"

Of course, they overlooked FOX News and the fact that it is the QUALITY of the competition, not the quantity, that is allowing the competition to eat their lunch now (and soon, their dinners too!).

4 posted on 05/23/2004 5:04:17 PM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Any day you wake up is a good day.)
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
I've heard this puke over and over again that Bush has gotten a free pass in the press.

So absurd it's almost comical.
5 posted on 05/23/2004 5:05:18 PM PDT by zencat (Visit my profile for MAGNETIC Bush/Cheney '04 bumper stickers!)
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To: 11th Earl of Mar

They're going down for the last time. And they reach for the anchor.


6 posted on 05/23/2004 5:05:18 PM PDT by small voice in the wilderness (Quick, act casual. If they sense scorn and ridicule, they'll flee..)
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
These people are pathetic. The reason the bottom line is impacting on them is that people have turned away from them as a source of information. They are biased, ignorant, can't string together a decent sentence, and politically corrupt.

If the owners of these papers and magazines would exercise a little judgement in their hiring practices and hire only those who would report the news without their political bias showing, they'd probably see business pick up.

Will they do that? No.

7 posted on 05/23/2004 5:07:12 PM PDT by McGavin999 (If Kerry can't deal with the "Republican Attack Machine" how is he going to deal with Al Qaeda)
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To: kcar
The gates are down. The lights are flashing. But the train [is] not coming.

Perfect analogy...

8 posted on 05/23/2004 5:10:16 PM PDT by antaresequity (This is not the "War on Terror"...we don't fight tactics.)
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To: 11th Earl of Mar

What,a constant and steady stream of "Bush Bashing" is not enough for these guys?


9 posted on 05/23/2004 5:13:03 PM PDT by freekitty
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
it is the QUALITY of the competition, not the quantity

You bet!

The use of "quantity" and ommiting mention of quality proves that they will lie even to themselves.

10 posted on 05/23/2004 5:13:56 PM PDT by Navy Patriot
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
EGADS. Now we're polling the foccocta partisan media.

S'cuse me....I feel my gorge rising

11 posted on 05/23/2004 5:14:38 PM PDT by The Drowning Witch (Sono La Voce della Nazione Selvaggia)
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To: 11th Earl of Mar

Actually many leaders in the industry ignore the bottom line, they are so ideologically driven.

As a rule of thumb, most editors would rather print ideological drivel than make a profit, as long as their own salaries are not impaired. If someone else has to be fired because circulation is down, too bad.


12 posted on 05/23/2004 5:15:58 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: All
More than half of national journalists say the press has not been critical enough of President Bush.

More than half of national journalists are activists pretending to be "journalists."

13 posted on 05/23/2004 5:24:55 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (Benedict Arnold was a hero for both sides in the same war, too!)
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To: Navy Patriot
As the media has steered hard to port, they find themselves in the unenviable position of promoting a cause that simply cannot survive close scrutiny and honest debate. Just like the socialist politicians (Democrats) must obfuscate to advance their agenda, the media mus do so as well because they have cast their lot accordingly.

While, in the past, the media (as a monopoly) might have suceeded in this effort, facing competition which offers the public high-quality objective content, they are fading fast into what GW might call "the dustbin of failed ideas".

14 posted on 05/23/2004 5:26:33 PM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Any day you wake up is a good day.)
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To: 11th Earl of Mar

These people totally do not get it, do they? People are getting booed off stage by college kids for bashing the president and the left's answer is to bash him more. This is going to backfire on them big time. I'm counting on it.


15 posted on 05/23/2004 5:38:30 PM PDT by sweetliberty ("Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.")
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
Just like the socialist politicians (Democrats) must obfuscate to advance their agenda, the media mus do so as well because they have cast their lot accordingly.

Yes they have cast their lot, and their ship is taking water. Enough that some, more evenhanded journalists, have been able to wiggle out from underneath liberal bias oppression and get into lifeboats so to speak. John Stossel and Brian Sussman come to mind.

16 posted on 05/23/2004 5:47:35 PM PDT by Navy Patriot
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
"We found that most sectors of the news media, other than online and ethnic media, are losing audience because there is so much more competition," Rosenstiel said.
Journalism self-defines as wisdom. Any individual journalist would of course deny that - but no individual journalist would deny the claim that "journalism" is objective, and objectivity is impossible without wisdom. Anyone who denies the objectivity of journalism would instantly be drummed out of the field of journalism by the full propaganda power of all other journalists.

But the well-known characteristics of journalism are directly at odds with the cultivation of wisdom.

That means that journalism is superficial, negative, and unrepresentative - a witch's brew which is inimicable to the cultivation of wisdom. It is in fact the perfect concoction in which to produce "liberalism" - socialism, misleading labeled.

17 posted on 05/23/2004 6:15:55 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion
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To: 11th Earl of Mar

These "press" retards have been graduated from schools that forgot to teach them that the media business is a private enterprise concern. That means, simply, no profits, no business! The more liberal, left-wing, "traitor" Democrat Party BS they print, the more newspapers and TV mainstream media will go down the drain. Hello........has anyone noticed the ever declining viewers of CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, etc.? And....the declining readership of the New York Times? End of story!


18 posted on 05/23/2004 6:28:44 PM PDT by JLAGRAYFOX
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To: 11th Earl of Mar

Geez. It's bash Bush 24/7.

No wonder people are tuning out.


19 posted on 05/23/2004 6:31:47 PM PDT by OpusatFR (Vote Kerry if you want to commit national suicide)
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To: 11th Earl of Mar
More than half of national journalists say the press has not been critical enough of President Bush. Local journalists were about evenly split between thinking the press is not critical enough or is fair in its treatment of the president.

Breathtaking.

Nearly eight in 10 in both the national and local news media say that not enough attention is paid to complex issues,

What they mean is not enough people swallow their spin on these "complex issues".

Bah

20 posted on 05/23/2004 6:37:04 PM PDT by cyncooper (There's a RAT line in Iraq)
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