There’s an article today in Poynter Online pointing out that hard questions are not gotcha journalism. Unfortunately most of the country isn’t going to read that pieces.
I recently talked with a journalist I know about the effects of the McCain campaign on the state of the media. The journalist shrugged it off—”it’s what the Republicans do in every presidential campaign.”
But when you look at the facts and figures about trust in the news media, it’s easy to find a steady and worrisome decline.
I think there’s probably a connection between the two things, especially when the Republican log-line is that, and I am paraphrasing Steve Schmidt here, “The New York Times is not a legitimate news organization, they are a partisan rag.”
What do you think – is there a connection? Should “the media” be doing something about it? If so – what?
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Jason,
I hate to swoop in and shamelessly promote my own blog, but I posted a piece a few days ago that I think has some relevancy — long story short, that news sources should get off their high horses and stop claiming to be “objective.”
Part of that involves an idea you mentioned a while back — that news sources should have their reporters start writing in first person. Doing so would build a rapport between reader and writer and perhaps rejuvenate peoples’ trust in the media.
I was at a coworker’s desk helping troubleshoot a networking problem and on her screen was the BBC News website. She said that the media here is so biased, she thinks that news coming from outside the USA provides a more transparent look at the issues here.
Yes, I’d say we have a general feeling that journalism is dead.
Paul – Shameless plugs are certainly allowed when they’re relevant.
I think you’re absolutely right – the idea of objectivity is itself in trouble, because the greater population of the US seems to realize that people have opinions that sneak into their writing no matter what, and they’d rather be able to judge news articles from an informed viewpoint, rather than having to guess at which way someone leans.
Peter – Yeah, I know a lot of people who have the “throw up their hands” attitude towards US media. Unfortunately, I’m not sure the BBC is any better – it’s just such a different starting perspective that it’s harder for us to identify the bias.