Discussing the decline of newspapers and invesigative journalism

[Craig234]

"If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn't hesitate to choose the latter."
- Thomas Jefferson

Investigative journalism is essential to the operation of our society.

It doesn't neatly fit into the system of government split between the executive, legislative and judicial - all in theory with some public accountability through elections.

(Yes, Supreme Court Justices are not elected - they're put in place by elected officials).

But journalists have been called 'the fourth branch' because of their important role in answering Harvey's questions, 'who's watching over who's watching over'.

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment — the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution — not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants" — but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.
- President Kennedy

It's better business for media to not do investigative journalism generally. It's more expensive to pay a team of reporters to look into a story for a long time digging into things being hidden; and almost any story with any criticism alienates some readers, if not powerful interests. It's a lot better business to do inexpensive, non-controversial pieces.

We've seen a major shift that direction - from the time 60 Minutes showed news can be profitable and network executives started demanding their news divisions make profits.

Investigative journalism has been decimated - and that's not in the public interest, especially in a time when powerful interests are more powerful than in a long time.

The recent economic crash had plenty of crime and basically no criminal charges - the media hardly did any credit to investigative journalism.

I saw a suggestion earlier that investigative journalism should be considered a public function to support even to the point that if the private market is crashing, there should be public funding for independent journalism - which sounds crazy and it's not ideal, but consider the BBC or PBS' Frontline series (which is better investigative journalism than about anything on private tv). This thread isn't about that, though.

It's a reminder of the topic, that we should try to keep investigative journalism strong - it's very expensive for corruption in corporations or the government not to be found.

"The press is the enemy."
- President Nixon

Without good investigative journalism, we get instead marketing, PR, and people don't know what they're not getting.

Here's an article by Chris Hedges on the issue:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/27-7

He's a hell of a writer.

The death of newspapers means, as Schanberg points out, that we will lose one more bulwark holding back the swamp of corporate malfeasance, abuse and lies. It will make it harder for us as a society to separate illusion from reality, fact from opinion, reality from fantasy. There is nothing, of course, intrinsically good about newspapers. We have long been cursed with sleazy tabloids and the fictional stories of the supermarket press, which have now become the staple of television journalism. The commercial press, in the name of balance and objectivity, had always skillfully muted the truth in the name of news or blotted it out. But the loss of great newspapers, newspapers that engage with the community, means the loss of one of the cornerstones of our open, democratic state. We face the prospect, in the very near future, of major metropolitan cities without city newspapers. This loss will diminish our capacity for self-reflection and take away the critical tools we need to monitor what is happening around us.

The leaders of the civil rights movement grasped from the start that without a press willing to attend their marches and report fairly from their communities on the injustices they decried and the repression they suffered, the movement would “have been a bird without wings,” as civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis said.

The powerful interests have succeeded to a large degree in neutralizing many of the people who expose their wrongdoing, by convincing many citizens in a well-funded propaganda campaign about 'liberal media' - which is about the only opinion you hear, ironically, in the media. With that 'victory' for them comes a loss for the American people.

The snake-oil salesman is quick to tell the audience that the doctors (who warn people against them) can't be trusted. Fox News is quick to say that other media can't be trusted.

But Fox is only the worst example, the problem is most media, the decline of investigative journalism.

So support good investigative journalism. Subscribe to magazines with it (like the ones in my sig), donate to Frontline, and watch Current TV's documentary series. Buy good books.

Rolling Stone has a one man army for investigative writing with Matt Taibbi; I got my new issue today, with a better expose on Michelle Bachmann than everything I've seen in mainstream media combined in years of coverage, following his exposes of other topics such as the best reporting I've seen on Goldman-Sachs, despite his being new to the finance industry.

It's a lot easier for society to have heavy corruption, plenty of marketing denying it, and a public who accepts that.

We may get the government we deserve - but it's a close corollary the same goes for the media. We get to vote every two years; we can vote on media daily.

Many Soviets were loyal to a terrible system because they only had its side reported. The same danger exists here, for our society to have more corruption it gets away with.

This forum has plenty of people who fall for this propaganda already, often parroting the PR defending wrongdoing. Investigative journalism is the only accountability for much of it.

Take global warming - scientists did the research, advocates publicized the issue - and a corporate media campaign with millions of dollars and hundreds of media outlets undermined it for their own profits. The media has mostly been silent on this issue of the corporate campaign -you won't find the following information exposing the campaign, from Mother Jones, in the mainstream media:

http://motherjones.com/politics/2005/05/put-tiger-your-think-tank

"Global warming hoax" is "political, criminal corruption"
- Climate scientist Rush Limbaugh

While I'm posting this reminding of the issue, the good news is readers can find good information, if they look; the bad news is, it's looking bad for investigative journalism.

 

[glenn1]

So you're supporting government funding of investigative journalism, because reporters serve an important adversarial role as a check against government corruption for a populace who finds them completely impartial and unbiased agents for political accountability. I'm sure the Congress will get right on with funding that plan...

 

[RabidMongoose]

Craig234 logic: Some countries don't even have newspapers, at least the US still has some around. What about these countries that don't have newspapers? Here you are talking about the US while it still has some, but so many countries don't even have nearly a free press. Let's focus on those instead.

 

[bfdd]

When political activism and political activists became journalists is when I would guess the death spiral started.

 

[Corn]

The powerful interests have succeeded to a large degree in neutralizing many of the people who expose their wrongdoing, by convincing many citizens in a well-funded propaganda campaign about 'liberal media' - which is about the only opinion you hear, ironically, in the media.......

Craig is always good for the lulz. He whines about the "powerful interests" convincing citizens of a false campaign to expose the "liberal media" for what it is, then proceeds to list out his favorite "independent journalists" at commondreams, mother jones, and rolling stone, as worthy of public funding. Thanks for the laugh Craig, keep 'em coming!!