There’s one thing I don’t get about all the conservatives and libertarians who have so much contempt for the mainstream press.
“Realize,” an emailer said today, “the MSMs are on trial here — the public clearly has found them wanting and they now have a tool (blogs) which can be used to call them on anything which even has a whiff of bias.”
In his Tech Central column, Glenn Reynolds calls the mainstream press “not terribly trustworthy,” lazy and condescending.
And of course, that is really just the tip of the iceberg …
But, really — doesn’t this contradict their own free-market theories? In an unregulated market — such as the media business — if an industry is full of lazy, dishonest people, aren’t profit-seeking entrepreneurs supposed to come in and steal their customers?
I mean, for all the talk about newspapers going the way of the dodo, profit marins are still around 20-30%. If we’re doing such a bad job — why doesn’t someone try and do a better one?
I don’t say this lightly — I mean, bloggers have every right to criticize the mainstream press. We should take seriously what they have to say, and when their criticism is valid, learn from it. But still … at a certain point, isn’t it fair to say — okay, if you guys think this is so easy, why don’t you do it?
It’s not that the job is really all that hard — actually, it can be a lot of fun — but it’s certainly a truism that it’s a lot easier to sit on your butt and criticize than it is to go out and create something. And creating a news product that’s objective, that’s fair, that appeals to people on both sides of the aisle … it can be a tricky business.
Really: I mean, the Internet is doing a better job of delivering classified ads. There’s a lot of great commentary out there online. The blogosphere even has its own cartoons!
But as far as the newspaper’s core business — gathering and reporting the news — where is the competition? Hmm, via Pressthink there’s this cool hyper-local blog — Montclair, Glen Ridge and Bloomfield, N.J. … and sites like Gawker, Wonkette, the Memory Hole, L.A. Observed and (especially) the Smoking Gun do, to some degree, do some actual reporting. But overall? There’s not a lot of reporting out there — just criticism, vitriol and innuendo.
It’s sad — I mean, a lot of these one-newspaper towns need competition. And with the Internet, it wouldn’t be that hard to organize.
I’m not talking about a “WorldNetDaily” type of competition, news outlets built with a wink and a nod to appeal to people of a certain ideological persuasion.
And not a Timeswatch/RatherBiased type of watchdogery.
I mean, actually creating objective news outlets that actually dig up and report the news.
If we’re doing such a bad job of that — why isn’t someone willing to put their money where their mouth is?
Two points.
1) Talk to Roger Simon.
2) Most of us have day jobs.
I agree absolutely with Blogoland (a fellow journalist) on the Roger Simon idea. If this Pajama Media people get out of their PJs to do some actual reporting — that will be impressive, and more power to them. I hope that’s what they plan, and not just a roundup of blog-posts.
As for day jobs, well — sure. But … I mean, shouldn’t someone out there sense the opportunity for profits, and get into the newspaper business?
What right-wing bloggers are alleging is basically a case of market failure — something Milton Friedman types I think would tell you shouldn’t exist in an unregulated industry.
Isn’t there a contradiction here?
In a sense I think you are barking up the wrong tree, Derek. I can only speal for myself, of course. First, the vast majority of the “media” or journalists are just fine hard working people, same as anyone else. And it is foolish to equate that huge majority of working journalists with certain elemnets of your profession which incur the wrath of the right, as well as the left.
If I can concede the above, I’d hope that you might also concede that there is a certain elitest element within journalism – network TV, the Times, both NY and LA, etc.
That and they I see as an entirely different animal than most journalists. But they do have an ability to set an agenda, or focus the news that no blogger is likely to possess, ever. They are an institution, often Ivy educated and liberal, to boot. Not all – but enough. Or at least it would seem so from their editorials to their editorializing what should be news.
That said, the enlightened individual realizes that media as a whole ticks off the left as much as the right – so, it must be doing something correctly. Otherwise, as you point out, it would simply fail of its own volution.
Nice blog. – Dan
Hey Dan,
Are we elitists … hmm. I know we are in popular conception! No question about it. But … I mean, my paper, half our readers are black and Hispanic, and many don’t have college degrees. I don’t feel too elitist when I’m knocking on doors in some crummy Bed-Sty housing project … but I do feel like I’m doing important work, giving people a voice.
And truthfully, all the reporters I’ve met from, y’know, that big broadsheet paper have been really decent chaps who worked hard to get where they are. (of course, I just meet the peons who do grunt work, pretty much).
I do hear some of the network stars are … well, pompous asses. But the producers are nice! 😉
Secondly: I do think bloggers are gaining the ability to set an agenda, to focus the news, to influence public opinion. Look at the “Bush bulge”, or Eason Jordan … or the Schiavo memo story that burned Powerline! (but not before reporters such as Howie Kurtz were writing about the bloggers’ doubts on the memo).
And thirdly, I don’t think the media actually ticks off the left as much as the right. Part of the reason for that simply is (as the WP’s Dana Milbank has noted) that the right is in power right now, and the press tries to question authority. You didn’t hear as many complaints about the “liberal media” when President Clinton was getting racked over the coals for Whitewater and Monica!
But I think there’s some truth to the idea that there’s liberal bias in the media as well. (And, on the other hand, there’s also some truth to the idea that conservatives have cowed the press into not being as aggressive as we should … I know, I know, I’m equivocating!)