"Thank you sir may I have another?"
Posted on 12/27/2008 11:43:59 AM PST by shoptalk
When my colleague at the Newark Star-Ledger John Farmer started off in journalism more than five decades ago, things were very different. After covering a political event, he'd hop on the campaign bus, pull out a typewriter, and start banging out copy. As the bus would pull into a town, he'd ball up a finished page and toss it out the window. There a runner would scoop it up and rush it off to a telegraph station where it would be blasted back to the home office.
At the time, reporters thought this method was high-tech. Now, thanks to the Internet, a writer can file a story instantly from anywhere. It's incredibly convenient, but that same technology is killing old-fashioned newspapers. Some tell us that that's a good thing. I disagree and believe that the public will miss us once we're gone.
Mr. Farmer, who is now the Star-Ledger's editorial page editor, retold his experience of the old days a short while ago at a wake of sorts for departing colleagues. The paper has been losing money and might have had to shut its doors sometime early next year. So the drivers' and mailers' unions made contract concessions, and about 150 nonunion editorial staff took buyouts as part of an effort by the publisher to save the paper.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Who's going to gather the news? A 'pundint' blasts the blogosphere
Posted by Paul Mulshine December 27, 2008 12:45PM
I've received so many comments from people who failed to read the Moron Perspective Warning that I am now starting this entry with it. Please read it and follow the simple instructions.
Moron Perspective Warning:
If you want to comment on this piece, please do the following:
1. Read it in its entirety.
2. Respond to the question of just who will do reporting in the Internet era. I don't want to hear your theories about media bias. After 35 years in the business, I know as much on that subject as anyone and your theories will not amuse me. So stick to the issue of who will do the reporting in the future. Otherwise you risk having your comments either deleted or employed by me as an example of the idiocy of the blogosphere through the posting of a Moron Perspective Alert on them.
Here is the original entry:
I've got a column in Saturday's Wall Street Journal in which I lament the demise of newspapers and I point out the reasons bloggers make such poor replacements for professional journalists.
Here's an excerpt:
(blah, blah, blah ~ shoptalk)
Read the rest here (Be sure to click on View comments)
Go read yourself.
Be nice, shoptalk’s just passing it on for our, um, delectation.
"Thank you sir may I have another?"
Well, I went to his website and read some of the responses. Someone needs to ship him a flak jacket. Not too bright.
Y’all going to miss us when we’re gone. No really, you will miss us.
Pray for W, America and Our Troops
Newsflash!!!
Contrary to what a lot of journalists/communications majors like to think, they’re not the best writers in the world. They just do it for a living, but other than that, don’t have real insight into the process of discovering the truth of any matter, but just propagating what the originator knows, to a larger, general audience — which is always limited by their own understanding of how one goes about discovering the truth of anything.
The process of discovery is the most important revelation, allowing subsequent readers to verify the truth themselves — and not just accept it as the truth. Frequently, other experts are asked to comment on a statement that may in fact have no truth or substance, and certainly don’t have the methodology in arriving at those conclusions — but only the “conclusions,” as though they were a well-known fact.
In a previous time, those who had great expertise in one field, often lacked an ability to communicate it to any other, and that was the justification for the middleman, or media intermediary. However, because of nearly universal education, most people have the rudiments of language skills sufficient to communicate it to an audience beyond their immediate colleagues and peers — and those who are most knowledgeable in their field of their expertise now, are often the best at communicating those ideas to a wider audience themselves — rather than getting lost in the middleman’s muddled understanding, in which frequently, they enter and leave with their misunderstandings, confirmed.
Beat me to it. There are no honest journalist left. An honest blogger will have to do.
" ...when the whole world competes, you have to be a truly gifted person born, bred, and made for that event — because you’re not going to be able to fake it. When Mr. Moonshine is a bona fide genius himself, we’ll be the first to let him know."
Outstanding!
2. Respond to the question of just who will do reporting in the Internet era.
In other words, who do you believe, me or your and others' lying eyes?
I don't want to hear your theories about media bias.
Never mind that 80+% of "journalists" are liberal and vote for the(d) ticket every time.
After 35 years in the business, I know LIE as much on that subject as anyone and your theories will not amuse me.
So .... Otherwise you risk having your comments either deleted or employed by me as an example of the idiocy of the blogosphere through the posting of a Moron Perspective Alert on them.
Censor everyone with a different perspective. I bet this Moron would never get on Rush or Hannity and debate this issue.
I will SO miss this:
“Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza Strip Imperil Obama’s Peace Chances.” Washington Post Headline.
I will SO miss this:
“World rallies around Palestinians amid Gaza offensive,” the December 29 CNN.com headline screams.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.