I am a foodie, travel junkie, SEO expert, social networking mommy and former cops - government - investigative - biz - CAR print journalist turned web publisher - writer - mommy blogger. Here are my musings on all of the topics above.
My StumbleUpon PageGuess What News Business? Bias Was OK After All…
I sort of laughed/cried to read about some silly nonsense Geek Wars between Wired and Techcrunch in Techcrunch’s post, “ OK, Wired, Let’s Do This!” In essence, Wired (interestingly enough, the Old School journalist in this scenario) has attacked the Techcrunch blog ( new media), which formed a partnership with the Washington Post (so damn old school it is actually fossilizing as I type). This irks Wired, whose writer Betsy Schiffman wrote:
“We’ve got nothing against TechCrunch, but it seems crazy-crazy to us that the Washington Post, a paper known for the sort of reporting that can take down U.S. presidents, is publishing content written by a dude who invests in the companies he writes about. But what do we know.”
First of all, I want to make a point. This is an important one, so do pay close attention. This is tied so closely to why I’m embarassed for journalism that it just isn’t even funny. This is tied to why I left the business after 15 years. This is why, despite loving and adoring the kind of investigative journalism that moves mountains, I gave up on that passion. This is why people don’t even bother reading newspapers anymore.
When was the last time the Post, or any paper for that matter, did anything remotely as significant as take down a U.S. President? Oh, yes. In the 1970s. Thank you.
This is just a case of old school vs. new media in my opinion. For years, journalists have obsessed about being unbiased. It’s been banned, disallowed, the worst thing humanly possible for a journalist to do.
Here’s the problem with that plan. First of all, everyone is biased. Yeah, I said it. You can report and write fairly, but you can’t be a robot. Sorry, guys.
Second of all, and this is the really amusing and interesting part, no one cares! Little did they realize, and blogger popularity now proves, readers don’t care IF you are biased. They just want to know how, full disclosure.
In fact, the popularity of bloggers simply proves people like bias, they want bias. They want to find people with the same bias, because they believe them more. They want to find people with the opposite bias so they can get really mad and leave nasty comments.
They want humans, not journalists. So even though this is an insignificant spat between two sources of news, it speaks volumes of a larger issue that old school journalism just isn’t facing. We don’t care if you’re biased. So what? We’re biased, you’re biased.
Just use full disclosure, don’t be sneaky, and write fairly. Be upfront. And for crying out loud, don’t be afraid to write boldly, without censure and without falling to the whims of advertisers, government officials.
We don’t really care if your journalist is a liberal or conservative (well, I don’t), as long as they say so. I care a lot more whether you’re axing stories because the newspaper’s publisher is buddies with the mayor, or an advertiser squawks about an unflattering biz story. I care when bias stops real stories from being told, no matter who’s telling it.
Tags: blogging vs. news media, full disclosure, investigative journalism, journalism, journalists, new media, old school, techcrunch blogRelated posts
on May 17th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
The reason I still read print journalism:
* the writers are paid a decent wage, contrary to web media which pays little or nothing
* journalists tend to dig deeper into stories and have the financial power of the publication to send them on a trip, if necessary, to see the person/place in person
* journalists are more scrutinized — more heavily editied by people with greater skill, and they are also held more accountable — being open to being suied where the blogosphere reports the “facts” with little recimination when reporting non-facts.
on May 19th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Lately (well maybe always) I’ve found newspaper reporting continues to reflect the bias of the publishers. I’m an in- house PR person and when we really want to research the facts and opinions on an issue - we monitor certain blogs along with the newspapers. We have to. Our paper’s are pretty entrenched in their philosophical camps.
I don’t know if bloggers are better at this point…but before long many of the good writers will have either been laid off or frustrated enough with the papers to start their own blog
on May 19th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
It is hard to ignore clear media bias over the decades. The “liberal” news media supported the march to war, supported way too many right-wing policies and journalism seems to have taken on a new formula in which you bring in a couple old white male “experts” and throw them in front of a camera to spew the same old arguments.
Don’t get me wrong, I too still read some print journalism, I like the NY Times, Washington Post, and I consume other papers when they print stories on topics of interest. But the days of the Pentagon Papers are long behind us and those quality of stories are too few and too far between.
The beauty of the blogosphere is admen are not making the decisions, there are no corporate overlords running the board-room and to me the fact that the pay is lousy is ok, it means that they are motivated for other reasons to report the news. It has gotten to the point now, where print journalism is looking to the blogosphere for their scoops.
I look forward to the continuing growth of the medium, and will still probably always enjoy the sunday times over a cup of coffee on my front porch.
on May 19th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I still read a couple newspapers but I hear what you’re saying. I also enjoy reading people’s open opinions and biases on blogs as well.
I agree that everyone is biased and that’s why blogs are refreshing because they’re more open about that.
Sandras last blog post..Saturday’s Nature Music
on May 19th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Thanks everyone for these great insights! I know it was brought up, and I would actually argue that journalists are NOT paid a decent wage. I know in my years as a newspaper reporter, I had teacher friends who whined about their salaries, and the starting salary for a teacher was dramatically higher than a starting journalist’s salary (and that’s for 3 months less a year of work).
I actually make so much more now off of online writing gigs that I couldn’t afford to be a reporter again even if I wanted to. I’d take too big of a pay cut.
The other matter is the work being put on each individual in a newsroom these days. Today, one human is expected to increasingly do the jobs of more and more people. It’s ridiculous, and this is a major reason for the lack of quality in newspapers these days.
How can a reporter dig up dirt or do a decent investigative piece when they are expected to write three unimportant 8-inch stories in a day, cover five beats, edit, proof, get some audio and video clips and, of course, also blog and post news online because those scary web sources are hurting the newspapers? The answer? They can’t.
on May 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 am
I do think it’s less a bias on the reporters’ end than laziness and, of course, busy-ness. Most are dealing with multiple beats, less reporters to handle breaking news (which is still top coverage for most papers). Biases aside, the editing can change most of that. Sad what it has become; it is not at all what it used to be and I do not think that will ever change. Blogs are alternative media are the answer.
Shawns last blog post..Girl meets mermaid
on May 23rd, 2008 at 11:37 am
Thanks Shawn. That is a VERY important point, and I hope it didn’t get lost. I actually think a huge part of the problem lies in media ownership demanding more and more profit margin, and making reporters (and everyone in newspapers) do the jobs of more and more people. My last two newspapers, I saw “beat shifts” several times over even just a couple of years. Every shift was a way to juggle and give fewer people more beats.