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superjaberwocky
Superjaberwocky bookmarked on 2009-09-20 The Atlantic Mark Bowden journalism post-journalism bias politics

The Atlantic's Mark Bowden tells a tale of the interested voices who power today's increasingly "post-journalism" age.

  • In this post-journalistic world, the model for all national debate becomes the trial, where adversaries face off, representing opposing points of view. We accept the harshness of this process because the consequences in a courtroom are so stark; trials are about assigning guilt or responsibility for harm. There is very little wiggle room in such a confrontation, very little room for compromise—only innocence or degrees of guilt or responsibility. But isn’t this model unduly harsh for political debate? Isn’t there, in fact, middle ground in most public disputes? Isn’t the art of politics finding that middle ground, weighing the public good against factional priorities? Without journalism, the public good is viewed only through a partisan lens, and politics becomes blood sport.
  • In a post-journalistic society, there is no disinterested voice. There are only the winning side and the losing side.
  • The honest, disinterested voice of a true journalist carries an authority that no self-branded liberal or conservative can have. “For a country to have a great writer is like having another government,” Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote. Journalism, done right, is enormously powerful precisely because it does not seek power. It seeks truth. Those who forsake it to shill for a product or a candidate or a party or an ideology diminish their own power. They are missing the most joyful part of the job.

This link has been bookmarked by 3 people . It was first bookmarked on 20 Sep 2009, by Michael Becker.

  • 23 Sep 09
    janjhi
    Sohail Sangi

    With journalists being laid off in droves, ideologues have stepped forward to provide the "reporting" that feeds the 24-hour news cycle. The collapse of journalism means that the quest for information has been superseded by the quest for ammunition. A case-study of our post-journalistic age

    post-journalism collapse-of-journalism

  • 20 Sep 09
    superjaberwocky
    Michael Becker

    The Atlantic's Mark Bowden tells a tale of the interested voices who power today's increasingly "post-journalism" age.

    The Atlantic Mark Bowden journalism post-journalism bias politics

    • In this post-journalistic world, the model for all national debate becomes the trial, where adversaries face off, representing opposing points of view. We accept the harshness of this process because the consequences in a courtroom are so stark; trials are about assigning guilt or responsibility for harm. There is very little wiggle room in such a confrontation, very little room for compromise—only innocence or degrees of guilt or responsibility. But isn’t this model unduly harsh for political debate? Isn’t there, in fact, middle ground in most public disputes? Isn’t the art of politics finding that middle ground, weighing the public good against factional priorities? Without journalism, the public good is viewed only through a partisan lens, and politics becomes blood sport.
    • In a post-journalistic society, there is no disinterested voice. There are only the winning side and the losing side.
    • 1 more annotations...

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