Here are five things that we think should never change in journalism.
Category Archives: The Press
Stop Worrying So Much
Jane Friedman of Writer’s Digest says we should not worry so much about grammar. “Perfect grammar has nothing to do with great writing,” she blogs. “Certainly, I will admit that people who are better at grammar often have more sensitivity for the nuance of language—and tend to be better writers—but for the most part, facility with grammar has nothing to do with storytelling talent.”
Tax Proposals to Subsidize Newspapers
FTC may propose internet taxes on news sites to fund old school journalism outlets. “[G]overnment policy would encourage a tax on websites like the Drudge Report, a must-read source for the news links of the day, so that the agency can redistribute the funds collected to various newspapers. Such a tax would hit other news aggregators, such as Digg, Fark and Reddit, which not only gather links, but provide a forum for a lively and entertaining discussion of the issues raised by the stories. Fostering a robust public-policy debate, not saving a particular business model, should be the goal of journalism in the first place.”
At the End of the Day: Voted Most Popular
Chris Pash reports the phrase at the end of the day “is the most popular cliche in journalism globally. It is all-pervasive.” Headline writers also love “Man Bites Dog” in some fashion. For example:
- “Man bites dog: Pawlenty has kind words for Obama” from the Minneapolis Star Tribune on May 4
- “The Nation: What Happens To Welfare Mothers?” Lead sentence: “It’s the man-bites-dog story that never ends.” from NPR today
- “Groin ailment slows St. Louis Cardinals’ Holliday” leading with “This is man-bites-dog material.” What the? That’s from the St Louis Post-Dispatch May 8.
- Get more fun journalist’s cliches through the link.
Wake Up to a New Day
The rules are different here (in my head)
Angela Lu of WORLD Magazine contemplates a story from last week.
Atlanta Progressive News (APN) reporter Jonathan Springston was fired last week because “he held on to the notion that there was an objective reality that could be reported objectively, despite the fact that that was not our editorial policy at Atlanta Progressive News,” according to an e-mail from his editor.
What a fascinating story. And it raises so many interesting questions.
I don’t deny APN’s right to make the termination. They would appear to be an ideological news website (here’s their link), and it’s no more out of line for them to fire someone who denies their ideology than it would be for a Christian web site to fire someone who converted to Wicca.
But I have to wonder, what are the rules for subjective journalism? Is it possible to fact-check a story, when the editor’s reality and the reporter’s are held to be completely unconnected? And why would anyone go to them for news, if they admit from the outset that what they’re reporting may not apply in the reader’s world?
What if a subjective journalist committed plagiarism? Maybe there’s nothing wrong with plagiarism in his reality. Or maybe the original document doesn’t exist for him. Who’s to say?
And indeed, how can the editorial board be sure that their subjectivity rule applies in Jonathan Springston’s universe? Maybe he works for an Atlanta Progressive Journal that embraces objectivity.
These are a few of the dilemmas of postmodernism. And one reason why the whole structure is collapsing.
Straight from the shoulder
Over at the mighty Powerline blog, Scott Johnson publishes an exclusive statement from the great Stephen Hunter. Hunter writes about his latest Bob Lee Swagger novel, I, Sniper, and about what it was like to be a conservative journalist at liberal newspapers. Well worth reading.
I know you follow my health with passionate interest, so I’ll mention that I saw the doctor again yesterday. She told me that (contrary to my own views) I’m recovering from my bronchitis. It’s just taking a while.
I also asked her about the sore shoulder I’ve been enduring for some months, in the Norwegian manner—“No point spending money on medical advice. It’ll probably get better by itself. If it actually starts to turn blue and the fingernails fall out, then I’ll have it looked at.” I figured it was probably bursitis.
To my delight, she informed me it’s not bursitis, but tendonitis. This was gratifying, because in my mind bursitis is something old people get, while tendonitis is something that happens to young athletes. It appears I’m not doomed to feel like this for the rest of my life, but will be permitted to continue to delude myself that my gray hair is premature.
Kirkus Reviews Also Folds
Nielsen Business Media, which is closing down Editor & Publisher magazine, is also stopping production of Kirkus Reviews, which was known for it’s honest, even blunt, book reviews. “There was no sense of any financial distress within the Kirkus brand,” the editor said.
Editor & Publisher Magazine Folds
Editor & Publisher, a magazine which has covered the newspaper industry for 125 years, is closing down this month. The editor, Greg Mitchell, says it wasn’t a complete surprised, but it kinda was.
Describing E&P, Mitchell states, “I don’t think there are too many trade publications that were as independent and critical as we are, and we made some people angry because of that. We were calling for more Web focus way before it was fashionable; we were critical of many moves the industry was making and not making . . .”