Posted on 07/07/2024 11:33:19 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Once upon a time, journalists were taught to avoid injecting themselves into a story. The admonition in J-School was simple: “No one cares about you.” Reporters, in parental parlance, should not be seen nor heard. Instead, those telling the story were to become a rock of objectivity. Such rebukes, once strictly obeyed, have fallen by the wayside as print and digital news outlets summarily dump them overboard like tea in Boston Harbor circa 1773. Unlike that powerful pre-Revolutionary War act, this defiance has not brought forth a collective good – yet it spreads like wildfire.
Media outlets have abandoned the news article in favor of the personal essay. This practice has been trending for a while, but it has finally overtaken objective reporting. No longer is there a wall behind the long-held ban on that verboten word “I.” It has crossed the blood-brain barrier and is firmly ensconced in established news publications. Here are a few recent examples regarding the first 2024 presidential debate:
Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times: “I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep.”
Paul Krugman, The New York Times: “Given where we are, I must very reluctantly join the chorus asking Biden to voluntarily step aside, with emphasis on the ‘voluntary’ aspect.”
Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times: “I think Biden has to get out. As you know, I’ve been arguing since 2022 that he’s too old to run for re-election. But recently, when people have asked me about it, I’ve wondered, is it too late?
(Excerpt) Read more at libertynation.com ...
Modern “Skoolz of Jar-nal-izzzm” are for those that failed “Studies Skoolz”.
Couple this wisdom with pollsters who actively promote one party, or thought. Pollsters and journalist doing such are useless mouth breathers. Anyone looking for information from such people need their heads examined.
The article’s author, Ms Donner, is lucky. When I become king use of that tired and stupid “15 minutes of fame” cliche is going to be a capital offense
EVERYBODY is the star of their own ‘reality show’ inside their head nowadays.
ESPECIALLY so-called “journalists”. Why… THEY are THE most important people on earth!.. THEY ‘shape’ the news and sway nations… - (in their own little reality shows)
The really scary thing is how it will affect how our current history will be viewed in the future. Most of our sources for historical events have largely come from contemporary journalistic sources. Sure there was bias in past, but not on the level of the self-absorbed drivel that passes for news today.
So true.
Think of it as one big Operation Mockingbird or as the Mockingbird Media.
Way back in the 80s …. Before email before widespread electronic media… I was living in Germany and the only English-language paper other than the Stars and Stripes was the International Herald Tribune, basically an overseas edition of the NYT. Nothing against the S&S but I wanted something more, if only for the crossword (although even back then the S&S had a much better sports section). Anyway, I would read Anthony Lewis on the IHT editorial page, because this guy wrote for the NYT he’s supposed to be good right?! No he was practically unintelligible. For a long time I thought it was me…. No it was the NYT and their garbage…. Even back then.
I remember learning this lesson while working at my first newspaper job. It was a hot day and the sweat dripped off my brow ...
Hermann Hesse referred to our era as the Age of the Feuilleton, or as Jesus put it, people would be straining at gnats and swallowing camels, concerned greatly about things that don’t matter and not at all about things that do. Of course ‘journalism’ is going to become a collection of feuilletons, until the SreallyHTF, and then if we’re lucky we’ll get our act together and survive.
“It seems it always happens. Whenever we get too high-hat and too sophisticated for flag-waving, some thug nation decides we’re a push-over all ready to be blackjacked. And it isn’t long before we’re looking up, mighty anxiously, to be sure the flag’s still waving over us.” - “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (movie)
This extends to even the most prosaic news items. Just read about an update to Google Maps and had to wade through the journalist’s history using the app before I got to a description of the update.
This extends to even the most prosaic news items. Just read about an update to Google Maps and had to wade through the journalist’s history using the app before I got to a description of the update.
Ditto the Japan Times vs. the S&S back in the late 60s. I read the JT primarily for all the local news, and the articles directed at gaijin and expats.
The farmous Warhol portraits that leap to mind are of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy, Michael Jackson, Grace Kelly, Prince, John Lennon, Muhammed Ali, Debbie Harry, Liza Minelli, Chairman Mao, David Bowie, Albert Einstein, Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland, Twiggy, Queen Elizabeth (one of those prints hangs in the British Embassy in DC), and Ingrid Bergman. He painted several of those subjects at multiple times, in various poses.
I think it refers to the “fifteen minutes of fame” thing.
OK, that makes sense. Thanks.
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