RSS Feed for This PostCurrent Article

newspapers are dying because journalism is a joke

By American Girl in Italy on April 24, 2009 at 8:30 AM in Media Bias, Media, Print

This is testimony Business and Media Institute’s Dan Gainor gave before the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy of the Committee on the Judiciary April 21, 2009. The topic was a hearing on “A New Age for Newspapers.”

Newspapers are a dying breed because of technology and disappearance of neutrality in reporting.

While it is fair to blame much of the decline in newspapers to technology, it is not the only factor. The newspaper industry has changed too – for the worse. Standards have slipped or all but disappeared. The concept of a journalist as a neutral party has become a punch line for a joke, not a guideline for an industry.

We all saw how poorly the mainstream press covered the last election. According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, voters believed that the media wanted Barack Obama to win the presidential election. “By a margin of 70%-9%, Americans say most journalists want to see Obama, not John McCain, win,” Pew reported. Other surveys confirmed it: According to Rasmussen, “Over half of U.S. voters (51%) think reporters are trying to hurt Sarah Palin.”

It wasn’t just surveys, it was journalists themselves. According to Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell, in a column headlined: “An Obama Tilt in Campaign Coverage,” the paper’s election coverage consistently supported Obama in everything from positive stories to flattering photos.

That same slant reappeared last week during the Tax Day Tea Party protests. The Post didn’t write a story about more than 750 events nationwide until the day they happened – far different from how they handled other protests. Their own media critic Howard Kurtz even knocked such minimal coverage. The New York Times did preview the events six times – and five of those were negative.

Such one-sided reporting has destroyed the credibility of the print press. Among newspapers, the most trusted name in news is The Wall Street Journal and just 25 percent of readers “believe all or most of what [that] organization says” according to Pew. For The New York Times, that number is 18 percent and USA Today 16 percent. The only publications lower are People magazine and The National Enquirer.

Perhaps it’s hard to make a living in the media when you back a candidate who has a large base of supporters residing on park benches, their mothers basements, overseas or six feet under.

  • tek

    I notice The One has not said one word about restoring the Fairness Doctrine, which–contrary to what Republicans think–would prevent punditry and bring true journalism back to this country.

    • I’m a Linda too

      Well, it may have something to do with the fact that the far left, like Air America and the like, don’t want it. Because then they know THEY have to be fair and truthful. I remember Tom Hartmann RAILING against it a couple years ago.

      • Dawnelle

        The A.C.O.R.N.’s brought them TOO the dance.

        Let’s see if the Punk-o-Nuts can figure out what to do next. Apparently they didn’t PLAN beyond the campaigning. Pretty shoddy (among other things).

        fly by – waving to all!

        PUMA W00T!

        • I’m a Linda too

          lol that’s why Weary Barry is staying in campaign mode.

    • Paula Revere

      tek, where on EARTH do you get the idea that the Fairness Doctrine is a good thing? Yeah, let’s trash that First Amendment. Wow…You are literally the first person I have ever heard support that piece of garbage attempt to silence people from saying bad things about the Fraud. Good luck with that. It will NEVER happen.

      • Ellen D

        I’m old enough to remember the fairness doctrine. That, and the prohibition of networks making their own programming, no multiple ownership of stations in one market, and an attempt on restricting monopolies. It was a golden time kiddies, but now it is so unknown that people dispute whether it was any good. I was there. It was good.

  • I’m a Linda too

    AGI wrote:

    newspapers are dying because journalism is a joke

    EXACTLY

    Because they all decided to use their various papers as propganda, to put out biased stories and claims to promote their own biased agenda, instead of reporting news and giving us the facts. The entire paper became and Op Ed.

    It becomes pretty impossible finding a paper that biasly writes according to your own preferences and then, they still are not news, just a sounding board for group think, and how is that educational or reporting? Why bother?

    • AF catfish

      The title should be changed to “Neutral” Journalism is a Joke.

      The mouth-breathers who don’t read newspapers at all are the ones who voted for this fraud. Journalism is not a joke. Enough with the proud ignorance.

      • I’m a Linda too

        To be EXACT, it could read “because journalism has BECOME a joke”.

  • Sammie

    Thanks for that video. If Congress bails out newspapers, it may just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Many of us made conscious decisions to stop reading and supporting news outlets that were overly biased during the election, and if Congress props them up, at this point I can’t even fully fathom the level of disgust and anger that would cause.

    My statement is in no way intended to imply that people would become violent, I just think it would push many off the sidelines and cause the switchboards in D.C. to light up (and perhaps even fuel some peaceful yet heated demonstrations). At this point, it’s obvious that members of Congress need to hear from their constituents, because they seem to have been blinded by the propaganda (although Fox and others promoted the Tea Parties, they wouldn’t have been so widespread and well attended unless the dissatisfaction among the public was real).

    • Paula Revere

      My taxpaying dollars will NOT go to bailing out disgraces like the New York Times. I will quit paying taxes long before that happens. No way in hell. The media is my ENEMY for what they did shoving that conman Fraud down our throats. Yeah, right, let’s repay them for the con job on America. They deserve to die slow, painful deaths. All of them.

      • Baba Rum Raisin

        Paying to bail out the NYT is akin to gettiing stuck with the bill for your ex-wife’s boyfriend’s Viagra.

        • oowawa

          LMAO–an enlightening analogy . . .

  • janicen

    Why are newspapers dieing? Well, how about we start with Judith Miller and Jayson Blair? And then there’s Mike Barnicle who resigned from the Boston Globe amid charges of plagiarism and has now been resurected and presented to us as a legitimate journalist who’s opinion we should care about. Matt Cooper anyone?

    You are absolutely right, newspapers are dieing because there is nothing in them that justifies getting your hands all inky. I can download my puzzles online.

    • AF catfish

      Learn how to spell dying. Try reading.

  • C.S.

    It’s news by press release. Just like the scripted “press conferences” where Helen Thomas is avoided because no one can predict what she might say and Soertoro/Obama would end up looking angry or foolish or both. Or the “interview” that ends up being a shouting match to make sure the interviewee knows what position the “reporter” wants to hear.

    Until these news readers or printers of press releases learn how take them apart and ask those questions every journalist has asked since news was first disseminated, nothing will change. At least Dan Gainor still thinks like a journalist but he needs a place to practice his craft. Maybe we need to go back to Town Criers perhaps?

    • Peggy Sue

      CS said:

      “It’s news by press release.”

      On the money! And Gainor also takes aim: reporters and newspaper have to do a “better” job. I’d extend that: they have to start doing the job of actual inquiry. The press’s job is not to be the lapdog of power but an annoying mosquito. Somewhere along the line the journalistic class became too enamored with power itself. They whine that it’s the internet [something they poo-poohed only a few years ago]. But Gainor makes an important point: news is “not” a system of delivery; it’s the work [content] that people actually do.

      Until the MSM wakes up it will remain on life support and eventually become totally irrelevant [they're freefalling in that direction already]. But it’s telling that Congress needs a panel to explain and detail these facts to its own members.

      The world has become a self-replicating echo chamber.

      • JustMe~~

        we will be going back to soap boxes at the corner of each park!!

      • WMCB

        The job of the press is to seek truth, point out fraud and corruption, and to be adversarial in nature, regardless of who is in power.

        Part of how they got off-course is that many, on both the right and the left, wanted to press to only pick on “the other side”, and screamed bloody murder when THEIR side got examined.

        The press’ job is to be adversarial, to nitpick and dig and find fault. Their job is to be adversarial even when someone I LIKE is in power. They are completely in the pocket of the left at the moment, but there have been times when they were more in the pocket of the right.

        If the public would allow that they are supposed to print truth, even when it is bad for “my side”, it would be helpful. I’m not saying that the public is responsible for the decay in journalism – that has more to do with money and influence and co-opting than anything else. But we certainly didn’t help over the years, when we cheered them so long as the bias BENEFITED our side, and only complained when they were “against” our guys.

        • candymarl

          Excellent comment and true.

  • Dawnelle

    btw Larry & Susan

    that new FEEDZILLA thing on Hillary is WAY COOL!!

  • HARP

    I always turn to the sports section first. The sports section records people’s accomplishments; the front page nothing but man’s failures.

    • JustMe~~

      good one Harp……

  • Pingback: Newspapers have Killed Themselves « Just Americans Making Ethical Statements Weblog

  • jyotinc

    I got my news from the blogosphere which is more authentic and real; never in our newspaper. They’re late and biased.

  • http://! stodgie

    i go to the comment section of the houston chronicle on the net where yahoo puts together area sources of information. it is interesting to see the put down comments for the poor reporting you see on there.

  • Ellen D

    You don’t even know if the slant we hear is personal to that reporter or bought and paid for.
    And people wonder why the economy is such a mess. Can’t trust banks. Can’t trust politicians. Can’t trust the media. And people are supposed to feel comfortable behaving normally? We are in a siege mentality.
    Who do you trust?

    • AF catfish

      Amen!

      As soon as everyone stops reading newspapers Barry can complete his takeover of the country. I am not going to stop reading. Never.

      • ScottVA

        I would agree with you HOWEVER, the media wouldn’t even report the take over… LOL

  • http://www.sonicninjakitty.wordpress.com Sonic Ninja Kitty

    He’s telling Congress to lay off and let the free market system work itself out at 11:10 and 13:37.

    YAY!! Dan Gainor: Hero of the Day!!

  • ScottVA

    I have NO SYMPATHY for print papers in this country. 99% of them choose to report ONLY the left wing liberal point of view and abused the oath of honesty so they could get a fraud of a man elected President of US.
    I’m a conservative/moderate Democrat that’s fed up with it all … even the joke that is at 1600 PA Ave.
    I live in Wash DC and have stopped my subscription to Washington Post and NY Times over a year ago now when it became evident that the Primary season was really a big “media circus”…… Let these dying rags “eat cake” now and enjoy the slow death they definitely deserve!

  • ScottVA

    I have NO SYMPATHY for print papers in this country. 99% of them choose to report ONLY the left wing liberal point of view and abused the oath of honesty so they could get a fraud of a man elected President of US.
    I’m a conservative/moderate Democrat that’s fed up with it all … even the joke that’s at 1600 PA Ave.
    I live in Wash DC and have stopped my subscription to Washington Post and NY Times over a year ago now when it became evident that the Primary season was really a big “media circus”…… Let these dying rags “eat cake” now and enjoy the slow death they definitely deserve!

  • kAREN&Will

    newspapers are dying because journalism is a JOKE..Main stream media are dying because they are nothing but a JOKE ! You think journalism and media will soon become on the in danger list ? I hope they do and never return AND DIE OUT COMPLETELY. I will never buy any paper or watch the main stream media. I stopped. May 31, 08 and don’t plan to return. SHUT THEM DOWN !

  • kAREN&Will
  • Sassy

    As to our local newspaper, the only value is the obituaries. Every news item is at least a day old.
    Still, I like newsprint. It affords me the opportunity to delve into my interests.
    I cannot stomach the so-called anchors on TV news, starting with the local yokels who are clueless about the subjects they are presenting!
    We have passed the point of no return in news at all levels, for people are unwilling to apply the ethics of their predecessors!

  • susan h

    Here in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, newspapers which should have been out-there front and center getting the truth about Obama as this was his “home town”, failed to do their jobs. They let him dictate when and how the “stories” (I use that word since all Obama has told us about his life is a made-up fictionalized account) would appear. There was no investigation and no responsible journalism. The day he announced his candidacy they should have been all over the place, digging out the truth about the candidate. When Sarah Palin announced her candidacy, it took two minutes for everyone to high-tail it up to Alaska, yet reporters here could not get to Hyde Park or Springfield to uncover THE TRUTH ABOUT BARACK OBAMA. When they did finally release some information on Trinity Church, Tony Rezko, ties to Arab fundraisers, and the like, it was all sugar coated and well after Obama’s election was underway and Obama had already managed to steal the Iowa caucus from Hillary Clinton. Had this information been out there from DAY ONE, things might not have turned out the way they did.

    On more than one occasion, I emailed the Tribune and asked them to “TELL US THE TRUTH ABOUT OBAMA.” I suggested they go down into the lobby of the Chicago Tribune, a beautiful building on Michigan Avenue, which has sayings carved in its walls relating to knowledge, education, wisdom, etc., and re-read those sayings to remember why they became journalists in the first place. Both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times are now in bankruptcy.

  • RobWarrior

    The reasons that newspapers are dying are numerous and the dying art of journalism is a part of it.

    However, the fact remains, their financial model is now broken. Subscriptions are way down as the content is readily available on line.

    The biggest money maker for newspapers, the classified ad has been destroyed by Craigs List, Career Builder etc.

    Papers tried to charge to view content on line and that failed miserably. There’s too much free stuff out there and they found people pirating their content anyway.

    On line ads are not money makers as too many readers do not bother to click through.

    Point being, we could go back to the days of true journalism and it probably would not save the papers. They are a medium whose time has past.

  • candymarl

    Government bails out newspapers. Newspapers then become government owned media.

    Welcome to the new Soviet Union.

  • DaddysDarlin

    Congress needs to keep their hands off the newspapers.
    Newspapers need to start reporting the real news, that is the only way to get any readers back.
    We all saw how they failed at unbiased reporting during this past election, I always thought that there was some kind of oath that reporters took, I guess they all failed at the same time to be unbiased reporters.
    We know that they were told by their higher ups to quell any negative reports on Obama, that’s why nothing was reported about his inexperience, his lack of a valid bc, no background on his college papers or his work record, because he didnt have one.
    If these reporters had fairly reported the news Obama would be nowhere near the White House, his associations alone would have been a deal breaker, but we heard only the sound of crickets.
    I am appalled at the lack of standards in the newspaper industry, I for one will never buy another paper again.
    I trust the information I get online, I get all the information, not just what Obama and his cronies want me to see. I believe that is why Obama wants to take over the internet and start policing us. He doesnt want us to have any way to communicate with each other, he couldn’t handle another tea party.
    We will keep having tea parties, gatherings, protests, as long as Obama is in office and our congress is complacent. We will be heard, and in the end it is we American Citizens who have the power to take Obama and the entire congress out.
    We will vote in an entirely new congress and get rid of those lifetime politicians.
    I am ready for a third party, I know we all are, this should be the next step so we can identify those who are running who hold the same values as we do!
    LETS GET TO NAMING A THIRD PARTY, I AM READY, ANYONE ELSE?

    • b mathews

      my thought exactly. we need to vote out all the old, entrenched politicians from both parties and bring in some fresh new faces who have no grievances with each other.i think the time is ripe now for a new party. as a (former) democrat, i will NEVER trust the party again after the primary charade.if we start up a new party now it will give us 3 years to make our point and make a new party feasible. the next few tea parties should focus on this.maybe signs reading “out with the old, in with the new” im sure this will scare the crap out of those weasels. lets start with frank, dodd, reid and pelosi.

  • Foxx

    The critique applies to all news sources, not just print. Print in particular is dying because of TV and the internet. TV of course is no better than print.

  • Pingback: Topics about Italy » Blog Archive » newspapers are dying because journalism is a joke

  • Miss H

    Newspapars aren’t the only ones dying.

    The death of Freddie Mac’s acting chief financial officer heightens the turmoil at Freddie (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM) at a critical time when the two housing-finance giants are assuming larger roles in the Obama administration’s housing rescue program.
    David Kellermann, who became Freddie’s CFO when the government took over Freddie and Fannie in September, was found dead Wednesday.

    Just like the “DC Madame”; sometimes people who know too much are found hung.

  • termo

    “Newspapers are a dying breed because of technology and disappearance of neutrality in reporting.”

    Newspapers are dying because of the Internet and the ability for people to see news for free instead of paying for it.

    The reason journalism has become biased is because advertising revenue for newspapers and major TV network news channels have plummeted over the last 10 years as a direct result of the range of media options for advertisers particularly over the Internet.

    As a direct result newspapers and major TV network news had been forced to become sensational and biased in order to attract whatever ad revenue they could. It’s about business – not bias.

    It is worth noting that the idea of objective journalism was not practiced during most of our country’s history.

  • Pingback: Say No to Newspaper Bailouts! Exercising the Power of the Purse : NO QUARTER