It’s a good thing young readers aren’t reading papers
This post from myrtlebeachonline.com repeats the same old fantasies that we’ve been hearing from journalists for years, including these gems:
“The irony, of course, is that Huffington Post, just as most independent Internet sites, relies on stories filed by newspaper and television reporters. Without them, Huffington Post is just blowing so much smoke.”
Really? I read the Huffington Post and other websites because they’re full of stories and perspectives I never see in newspapers.
“Anyone who thinks mainstream newspapers are biased has only to spend a little time with Huffington Post to understand what bias truly is.”
Of course the Huffington Post is biased. Who said it isn’t? Interesting, though, that he focuses on the Huffington Post and not the Drudge Report, etc. … The difference is that on the internet the biases are more readily apparent and we can jump from bias to bias, unlike newspapers, where we’re spoon-fed biases by editors who obviously are “objective.”
“That kind of partisanship recalls 18th and 19th century journalism, when newspapers existed to promote the agendas of political parties and made little attempt at objectivity.”
See! Proves my point: Editors are objective! Seriously, the historical reference fails to note that even in small towns in those days there were options newspaper readers don’t have today. Not to defend yellow journalism, but where there was a Republican paper you usually could pass it by for the Democratic paper. And who says those times ended in the 19th century? Papers proudly promote political agendas today, from shilling for the war to promoting local developers. If I disagree with the editors I can write a letter, which will be published (in a highly edited form) only if those same objective editors decide it’s an acceptable opinion. Promoting an agenda is not inherently bad. In fact it’s often what makes newspapers fun and worthwhile. But stop pretending that newspapers are objective.
None of this nonsense from a little faraway website is particularly important, except that I came across it only through links from sites designed for newspaper journalists. My concern is that this drivel continues to be considered insightful in the world of newspaper think tanks. It’s this kind of arrogant, delusional thinking that is destroying newspapers and pushing us to the internet for our news and information.
The author laments that young people don’t read newspapers. He should consider himself lucky they don’t, because if they did they would shake their heads and laugh at the silly old men who write for them.
