Tag: journalism

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State of the Media or How Journalism ‘Lost its Guts’

The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s ‘State of the Media 2007’ report is out, and folks, its laced with negativity. The media in general certainly hasn’t seemed to benefit from any kind of potential reawakening since last year’s report.

Most revelatory (albeit vague) in the executive summary (PDF) of the 160,000 word report, is this analysis:

With fundamentals shifting, we sense the news business entering a new phase heading into 2007—a phase of more limited ambition. Rather than try to manage decline, many news organizations have taken the next step of starting to redefine their appeal and their purpose based on diminished capacity. Increasingly outlets are looking for “brand” or “franchise” areas of coverage to build audience around.

I’m confused by the parallel drawn between “limited ambition” and “diminished capacity.”
What is the root cause of this so-called era of “limited ambition?” Is it this renewed focus on local, or “hyperlocal” news as Howard Owens (to his utter dismay) read it? Or is it intimidation and competition with TV’s talking heads that’s led to print journalists losing their jobs as newspapers get thinner — as the LA Times’ James Rainey wrote?

If I’m looking at an Internet start-up after the 2000 bubble burst, say a Yahoo! (which lost a huge chunk of it’s market valuation at the time), I’d reconsider the business strategy and reshape it’s goals for success. After all, by 2000 a techie, Web-centric future was evident, in spite of the disabling adjustment Wall Street made to once ridiculously overvalued stocks.

Similarly, it’s apparent today that news content, the media-hungry audience and its sponsors are moving online. Is it impossible for the old media to adjust their expectations for the sake of journalism and maybe, I dunno, accept 15% profit one year, knowing that investment in online and interactive endeavors may eventually reap profits of 20% and more in the long run?

As Dan Rather offered in his keynote address at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference, perhaps journalism has “in some ways lost its guts” in recent years and is in need of “a spine transplant.”

I received similarly motivating and emphatic advice a couple weeks back, when Tom Brokaw visited USC Annenberg to commemorate the career of Ed Guthman, who will retire this year at age 88. I asked Brokaw, “what can young journalists do to rebuild the public’s trust in the media?” He answered simply, “stay true to the journalism you believe in and make the news fun again.” As short of an answer as it may seem, I took it as genuine. Perhaps there will come a tipping point when more people have fun with and enjoy journalism about “news” than those starving for the latest scoop on the Paris Hilton DUI?

More on State of the Media 2007 at Editor’s Weblog, Lost Remote, and Poynter.

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AP to Protest U.S. Military Censorship in Afghanistan

American military in Afghanistan provided the Associated Press with an unfortunate, yet easy-to-cover subplot in the aftermath of a battle that led to the death of 16 Afghan civilians.

Amir Shah writes from Kabul:

A freelance photographer working for The Associated Press and a cameraman working for AP Television News said a U.S. soldier deleted their photos and video showing a four-wheel drive vehicle in which three people were shot to death about 100 yards from the suicide bombing. The AP plans to lodge a protest with the American military.

The U.S. military blamed its troops’ unfortunate reaction, in which Afghan civilians were killed, on a “complex ambush” by Taliban militants. The deaths of the 16 civilians will undoubtedly hamper the U.S.’s efforts to redouble their forces while making nice and contributing positively to the rebuilding of Afghanistan.

Carlotta Gall has been delivering the straight gravy from Afghanistan for years for the New York Times:

The shooting sparked demonstrations, with local people blocking the highway, the main road east from the town of Jalalabad to the border with Pakistan. And there were differences in some of the accounts of the incident, with the Americans saying that the civilians were caught in cross-fire between the troops and militants, and Afghan witnesses and some authorities blaming the Americans for indiscriminately shooting at civilian vehicles in anger after the explosion.

No matter whose account you believe, the Taliban’s expected “spring offensive” is on. Two British troops were reported killed in southern Afghanistan yesterday.

troops in Afghanistan 2007 international by country

Graphic of active multinational military force in Afghanistan, 7 feb, 2007, via NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

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Putting the News to Sleep

Thomas Friedman is a moron. The guy is still traveling around touting his dated pipe-dream World is Flat book. Eerily reminiscent of the misinformed-but-sticking-with-it administration to which he’s been an advisor. I was hoping someone would step up to the mic when he visited USC on Monday, and ask: “Is there any free trade agreement you would not support?”

But he didn’t have time for the students, apparently, and kudos to the Daily Trojan‘s editors for calling him out.

Speaking of the DT, Zach Fox really gave it to the USC admin in this Op-Ed:

While the student editors and reporters who work for this newspaper are free to print whatever they wish, calling the Daily Trojan a student newspaper is like saying the Tribune Co.-owned Los Angeles Times is independent.

Now sleep on this….

A former Canadian defense minister is demanding governments worldwide disclose and use secret alien technologies obtained in alleged UFO crashes to stem climate change, a local paper said Wednesday.

Read more.

The neighborhood right-wing skeptics are pouncing on this just as fast as they’re trying to nail Gore for… um… using electricity.

photo via Naum.

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We Are Family: Strom Thurmond & Al Sharpton

The Daily News springs a you’ve-gotta-be-kidding-me on us as Black History Month (est. 1976) wraps up:

In a revelation that will stun the nation, the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of America’s most powerful black leaders, has unearthed a shattering family secret – his ancestors were slaves owned by relatives of the late South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Had this been discovered prior to the 2003 death of Thurmond, the anti-civil rights South Carolina senator who served for no less than 50 years, might Sharpton have talked some sense into Uncle Strom? Just kidding, kinda. The stories of Thurmond’s legacy of bigotry and before that slavery that have emerged since his 2003 death open up doors on just how ugly America once was — and how many of the values and ideals from the days of slavery continue to be passed down through generations.

Let’s not forget. Thurmond launched his political career with a run for president as a third-party segregationist candidate in 1948 — and actually picked up 36 electoral votes. (Trent Lott was famously forced to resign as Senate Minority leader after blogs circulated the “what if Strom won” comments he made at Thurmond’s 100th birthday party). Nine years later, he led the longest filibuster in Senate history — in opposition to the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

The reaction on the Thurmond side has ranged from shock and disbelief to flat-out denial. No word from the Reverend’s camp Rev. Sharpton told the media earlier today: “It was probably the most shocking thing in my life.” Either way, it’s a good way to raise the topic of slavery for discussion and it’s a great PR windfall for Ancestry.com, the geneaology-tracking Web site that funded the study that produced these hard-to-believe results.

UPDATE: Sharpton explains in an LA Times Op-Ed:

Every day from now on, when I write my name, I will think about how I got that name. I will think about how Al Sharpton, the white slave owner, sent my family to Strom Thurmond’s relatives to work off Thurmond debts. America’s shame is that I am the heir of those who were property to the Thurmond family.

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UPDATE 2: Slate has the original documents.