Real journalism. I love it. I read it. I want more of it.
Most of the readers here know this topic is one of my chain pullers. Pundits are not journalists, nor are most bloggers. Huff-Po (for the sake of brevity the only example, of many potential examples, I will use), at least up until now, had no real investigative journalists. What they had was a group of people, some with a certain expertise, some not so much, willing to give their opinion based on the facts as they see them. For god sake Bill Maher?
Opinion is good, I love giving mine. This post is tagged opinion. It’s my favorite tag. I love a few of Huff-Po’s columnists too, but what about the real investigative journalism? The kind that makes us sit back and think, not run to the nearest opinion blog to see what others think. What about finding out the answers to larger societal and political quandaries? For all the rambling on the new way of news, there is no new way of real investigative journalism. We are already a world of editorials, thanks to cable television. When the journalism, or the source of the news, goes to hell, the editorials are worth less than they would be otherwise, and that’s unnerving, considering how editorials go.
I came across the posts listed in the following paragraphs and thought I’d put them out there for you to read, as a prelude to the NYT magazine Strained by Katrina, a Hospital Faced Deadly Choices . The piece — by Sheri Fink, an M.D., a staff reporter at ProPublica, and senior fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative — is a spectacular must read (will be in the NYT Magazine this weekend), and an example of what we may be missing in the future. It is a piece that needs digesting, and we will discuss the piece itself another time, save to say that this is real investigative journalism, done by people who know what they are doing, and care about the subject matter. It takes time, and it is expensive to produce.
This post is merely a link to posts asking the questions we have to ask. Good reads for what might be a rainy weekend in many places throughout this country.
Cost of the NYT Magazine NOLA Story Broken Down
The Price of Truth
My question for the weekend is, if we are unwilling to pay for things like real investigate journalism, why? Is it because we really don’t want to know the truth? Are we are too wrapped up in our own problems, significant or not, to see any worth in the larger ethical, social, or political questions we should be asking. Or is it some kind of calculated evolution? Will journalism go the way of the clothing we wear, made in third world countries, sometimes from factories with questionable labor practices, and often of lesser quality.
What say you?
What of the future of journalism? What of the future of the truth.
Check out the preceding post, Old School Friday, if you missed it.
The Times piece is long. I can’t do it justice until tomorrow, but the other links were worth the read. I don’t know the answer. I hope that future generations do not miss out on real journalism, but I fear that it may be the case. Truth will be nothing more than someone’s opinion. And that should never be the case, no matter who the opinion belongs to.
I hope you got to read it, it is a lot to digest but is a worth piece of journalism.
The internet seems to be the only way to get real info, which of course you must decipher for yourself. Scary, but that’s the way it is.
American publications provide little info about America.
I believe the news media, & Hollywood still want us to believe that journalism consists of some guy sitting behind a desk scratching his head at a typewriter.
As for Bill Maher,but it’s like watching a kid scream, :“I win, I win!” all the time. Routing behind him makes me feel stupid even though I agree with him most of the time.
We are in the dark about a lot. Could change if our younger generation realizes sponsored News depending on ratings isn’t always the best source.
Bennet´s last blog ..Sell Some Crazy For The Hazy
The amount of real in of we can get from the internet is questionable, and it’s rare’ investigative journalism. Well I think my generation is too often so big on getting on the internet they have a hard time deciphering what is real.
Speaking for myself, I am happy to pay for investigative journalism. I am unhappy to pay for opinion. My favorite opinion I get from people like you and bloggers are generally as good as pros.
I found it funny, in times past, that the NYT’s website charged for columnists and gave away information. If Times Select had been the news section of their website, I’d gladly have subscribed.
But why pay for Tom Friedman when I can get Cooper for free? That would be silly.
Doug´s last blog ..The Reformation of Wolfshausen
You make me proud with those lose purse strings.
That was interesting they did used to do that didn’t they?
Doug you keep making feel like I should be
I think people still want real journalism. What’s happening is pundit journalism is being disguised as real journalism. Frontline still does a very good job of investigative journalism, and occassionaly you’ll catch one of the major networks doing some real work too.
What we’re seeing is people with predisposed opinions with no journalistic training passing their stories off as real journalism, with our current media establishment allowing it to happen. The left does it as well, it’s not just Fox News.
For the future, I see blogs playing a larger role in fact checking pundit journalism but bloggers are by no means journalists. I see major media becoming more bloggish, which is scary if you think about it.
Chris´s last blog ..Quickies
It’s actually not disguised everyone should know that all those show from good old Billy to Good Old Chris are opinion journalism.
It is scary, and I hope it isn’t the case.
A good point about the NYT formerly charging for the op-ed columns.
They have some of the better opiniators, but what it really shows is people will pay to hear there own opinion mimicked but they won’t pay to hear the truth.
Glenn Beck would likewise make a killing in the paid content arena, crazy or not those like him would pay to hear him micmic their views.
john´s last blog ..Currently Fearing Everything
Yea I’d probably pay for that.
I agree with Doug. And I believe that editors are too easily swayed by opinion pieces they think will sell newspapers and therefore the fifth of the very basic question that used to have be answered don’t anymore: “who” “what” “where” “how” “why.” That one’s fudged. Fact checkers are busy checking the most basic of facts – was the reporter where he/she said he was rather than questions of substance
pia´s last blog ..Climbing metaphorical mountains
I’m too easily swayed by opinion pieces as well. I can be swayed in 10 different directions on any given day.
First of all, I’m slowly digesting that Katrina-hospital article as we speak. It is an amazing read, and a great example of investigative journalism, as you pointed out.
As for your questions, I think that most people do not care to really know the truth, to be exposed to the reality of this world. That may sound cynical, but I get the impression that this country is filled with McDonald’s eating (no offense), Box Store shoppers. For the most part, they don’t think for themselves or look for truth.
Cynicism aside (actually, this may just be more cynicism), the press, at least in the United States (and mostly elsewhere, too) is largely controlled by various corporations/corrupt individuals who prefer to expose us to what they want us to see.
I was just thinking recently, How come we don’t see regular NYTimes articles on the current situation in Honduras? It’s pretty explosive down there and the United States does have a relationship with the country and its government. I think this says something about what we’re exposed to and what is “hidden” from us.
An individual needs to make real effort in order to discover true journalism and most people are, frankly, too lazy.
I apologize for offending anyone with this comment — it’s my recent bout of intense doubt in the public and the majority of human beings in this country. But I am not directing it at anyone in particular and I’m certainly open to another perspective!
That was an amazing read, I think I’ve sent it to everyone I know.
I totally agree with you. I remember a few years ago I was reading this jaunty little travel piece in the NYT on Oaxaca, Mexico. I was a piece about how beautiful it was, the food, the hotels, and the reporters vacation. This was at he same time as he teachers strike, the murders of social activist and even one US journalist -,and so on and so forth.
Not a mention of it from the reporter — who has a lovely vacation there.
I share in your doubt.
People live in a bubble and they like it that way. I know people who surf the shores of the world who know more about what is going in it than those who are currently reporting in it.
I’m not saying this is wrong, it may be the way it was intended, but it makes small minds and is not helping humanity’s case.
The corruption hold is something which puts me in constant state of “why should I care”. We live in a dead end.
The NOLA piece was superb.
g´s last blog ..Old School Friday
I’m glad you read it.
I hear you G.
I read the Katrina piece before going to sleep and don’t suggest that
As a medical geriatric social worker a doctor’s misinterpretation of something basic was mind numbing – and how people went along with it.
The author was great. She reported it and let you come to your own conclusions.
There’s so much in the article to take in
I know you’re not up to talking about that article but it was the single best piece of investigation journalism I have read since – well exposes of mental hospitals etc but in the political realm I have to go back too far
pia´s last blog ..Follow the fellow who follows a dream
The piece was wonderful. Meant to be read again, which I plan to do. I have been away from home most of the weekend just now settling in, so haven’t given it a second run through. It is rather mind boggling.
I’m going to read it eventually, due to the accolades. Not tonight.
I’m with the spendthrift Doug, the cynic Tristan, the political Pia, and the forever idealistic (but doubtful because she knows we are like people who complain we can’t see out the window, when the truth is we never open the blinds), cooper.
jacob´s last blog ..And Then There Were Two
I hope you got to ead it. It’s a long read but well worth it.
It’s all about money, a rank fear of the slightest criticism, and the lack of wanting to do the hard, dirty job of digging into a story.
The news is so… what’s the word I’m looking for… veneer? It’s all surface coating these days while the publishers look for instant gratification.
sauerkraut´s last blog ..Mock the Week: Brits take on American Healthcare Reform
Venner is a good term. No solid wood.
Wiat maybe it’s plywood we are looking for some venneers are worthy masterpieces.
My grandfather was a journalist for thirty years. We’re losing real journalism.
Nobody investigates anything any more. I fear we will one day have a world wide calamity started by some twitterer.
Cheap news, easily transmitted (across the internet), but far from the truth.
jake´s last blog ..Life Rained Out
“Cheap news, easily transmitted (across the internet), but far from the truth.”
That is a nice way to put it jake. Did he work for the Sun?
Don’t disagree with you at all. But Journalism is facing the pressures that the car industry et al face in becoming a better biz model. As a result, in the transition, there is going to be A LOT of crap produced, and good journalists/writers who research are going to get axed.
The key is for the best to get together — form a new company — and find the marketing/ad rev to keep their personal and professional expertise out there doing what it needs to do.
Without the money to support their trips, their interviews and their time invested, it goes no where. I’d say it will be 5 years before a new print/online media company adapts completely to the entire social media/online/ad game thats going on.
Just an uneducated thought.
Jason Powers´s last blog ..No Rest in Fantasy Baseball: Cash for Clunkers, Fines for Plunkers, and Punk’d Moves
There-in lies the problem. I already see it, the people writing essays or op-eds half the time have no working knowledge of anything, and haven’t really even gotten off their ass to investigate. It’s usually people my age who think they are doing something new and it’s the future, but really it’s a pretty poor future if that is what they think.
[…] Wonderland or Not: Investigative reporting can be expensive. Do readers really want to pay for it? […]
The truth. So hard to digest, it’s unpalatable at best, some days. To face it is hard, to see it is painful, and to find out what it is is expensive. The truth will go the way of many things. Away. It looks like it will take real journalism along with it.