In Defense Of Journalism

There's a great new article by Sydney Schanberg in the Village Voice discussing the supposed impending death of traditional media (ie. newspapers and magazines) and the rise of new media (ie. blogs). Schanberg notes that while blogs are a great new resource for alternate information sources, true journalism cannot survive without hard journalism finding fresh stories. He states "serious journalism is labor-intensive and time-consuming and therefore requires large amounts of money and health benefits and pensions. The blogosphere has plenty of time, but as yet none of the other items."

If Old Journalism Dies . . .
Where will new media get the news?

Schanberg lists a few recent news stories that confirm our faith in traditional media-

1. The L.A. Times 'Curveball' story about the Iraqi informant whose "unreliable statements to German intelligence officials about Iraq's germ warfare weapons were not only used but exaggerated by the Bush administration to justify invading Iraq in 2003".

2. The story that the Washington Post and the New York Times about Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, stating that "[a] top member of Al Qaeda in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons."

3. The devastating National Journal story which stated that "President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter" and that the briefing "was prepared at the request of the president, who was eager in the days following the terrorist attacks to learn all that he could about any possible connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda."

4. The Rolling Stone story - The Man Who Sold The War - about John Rendon, a man hired to help the White House sell the Iraq war. A must read article. It stated that Rendon's firm "has made millions off government contracts since 1991, when it was hired by the CIA to help 'create the conditions for the removal of Hussein from power.' Working under this extraordinary transfer of secret authority, Rendon assembled a group of anti-Saddam militants, personally gave them their name—the Iraqi National Congress—and served as their media guru and senior adviser."

5. A recent Nation article entitled All the King's Media, an insightful essay on the state of media in George W. Bush's America. It states that now "The major media stood too close to the throne, deferred too eagerly to the king's twisted version of reality and his lust for war. The institutions of 'news' failed democracy on monumental matters."

All great articles, all good defenses that hope remains in today's journalism.