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Media Deathwatch: Arrogant Reporter Vanquished By Bloggers Bleats into Obscurity
by: Bill Dupray posted: 2008-12-28 17:38:00
Viewed 899 times. 8 Comments.
This MSM reporter's newspaper is going paws-up and all he can do is yell about how much smarter he is than the rest of us rubes.
Now, thanks to the Internet, a writer can file a story instantly from anywhere. It's incredibly convenient, but that same technology is killing old-fashioned newspapers. Some tell us that that's a good thing. I disagree and believe that the public will miss us once we're gone.
And it is all the fault of idiot bloggers (you know, those guys who sit around in their pajamas writing all day).
The problem is that printing a hard copy of a publication packed with solid, interesting reporting isn't a guarantee of economic success in the age of instant news. Blogger Glenn Reynolds of "Instapundit" fame seems to be pleased at this. In his book, "An Army of Davids," Mr. Reynolds heralds an era in which "[m]illions of Americans who were in awe of the punditocracy now realize that anyone can do this stuff."No, they can't. Millions of American can't even pronounce "pundit," or spell it for that matter. On the Internet and on the other form of "alternative media," talk radio, a disliked pundit has roughly a 50-50 chance of being derided as a "pundint," if my eyes and ears are any indication.
The type of person who can't even keep track of the number of times the letter "N" appears in a two-syllable word is not the type of person who is going to offer great insight into complex issues.
Ironically, this silly arrogance shows the very same cluelessness this guy attributes to bloggers. He is literally saying that nobody but trained, professional journalists are qualified to report or comment on the news. Typical leftist elitism.
He groups all bloggers into one massive group: morons with computers. He cannot bring himself to admit that there is, as in any area of life, a continuum of bloggers, ranging from foul-mouthed, uninformed ranters to well-trained, and highly specialized people with backgrounds in law, politics, philosophy, and yes, even journalism. As in any competitive field, those who produce a product for which there is a market will succeed, gain market share, and prosper. He who fails can save his musings for posterity, to prove to his descendant's that indeed, Uncle Joey was a gold-plated fool.
Here, our hero's hubris and ignorance get the better of him.
The common thread here, whether the subject is foreign, national or local, is that the writer in question is performing a valuable task for the reader -- one that no sane man would perform for free. He is assembling what in the business world is termed the "executive summary." Anyone can duplicate a long and tedious report. And anyone can highlight one passage from that report and either praise or denounce it. But it takes both talent and willpower to analyze the report in its entirety and put it in a context comprehensible to the casual reader.
And nobody other than a trained journalist has any talent or willpower to analyze anything and make it understandable to the casual reader. No lawyer has ever had to take a complex combination of facts and law and explain it to 12 random members of the public. No doctor has ever explained the complex interaction between kidney failure, diabetes, and medication to a patient with a third grade education. But it takes a trained reporter to tell us that race may have played a factor in the presidential election.
And our very smart reporter shows us just how little he payed attention in the Free Markets unit of his Econ 101 class in journalism school.
This highlights the real flaw in the thinking of those who herald the era of citizen journalism. They assume newspapers are going out of business because we aren't doing what we in fact do amazingly well, which is to quickly analyze and report on complex public issues. The real reason they're under pressure is much more mundane. The Internet can carry ads more cheaply, particularly help-wanted and automotive ads.
They do it amazingly well, in his humble opinion. Nobody gets to question that conclusion. Nobody gets to tell His Highness that he may, in fact, be allowing his personal opinion and bias into his amazing reporting and analysis. And nobody, certainly not some blogger, gets to tell him that perhaps, just perhaps, somebody might be able to do it better.
Yep, it is the mighty Classified Ad that has brought newspapers to their knees.
Now that is some amazingly well done reporting and analysis.
Tags: Internet, MSM, Media Deathwatch, Star-Tribune, Paul Mulshine, Newspapers,
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Comments 8
His last statement about "ads" being the real reason for the demise of the newspapers, is he serious about that statement or am I not reading his statement correctly? I don't even open that section of the newspaper. My first stop with a newspaper,of which I like to read, is 1;the front page,2;editorial pages,3;local and regional news, 4; sports section,5; back to the front section, 6; and the funnies for dessert.However I came close to canceling my newspaper before the election because of their lopsided coverage of the POTUS candidates. I live in a red state and this paper did everything in their power to kiss-up to Obama and to put McCain in the harshest light.
However as much as I enjoy reading a newspaper, I go to the internet for the best news coverage.
Faye, I think he is saying that the loss of ad revenue from classifieds going from paper to internet is the cause of their demise. While this is undoubtedly partially true, to not acknowledge the internet competition for content as well, is to ignore the 800 lb. gorilla in the living room.
Bill,
It seems to be very difficult for some to recognize that 800 lb. gorilla even when it sits on them. It's the content of the paper that is the issue. Is it not reporting accurately, or is it too biased to the point that it seems like reading some cult propaganda? It's too bad this is not recognized because this blindness will be the death of what once were very fine publications.
I worked for a media company which had a few newspapers and several magazines. It isn't really the ads, nor the classified ads, at least not in this market (Las Vegas). The classifieds section was actually one of the most profitable ad groups in the paper.
Having said that, internet advertising is cheaper in general but it depends on the advertiser. Take a high end advertiser like Bacardi. A full page ad is much more appealing than a little ad on a website. Small shops also benefited quite well with newspaper advertising, more easily targeting the local market.
There is an old saying that goes, "if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem".
Mr. Mulshine is not part of the solution!
As a resident of North Jersey I am quite familiar with Paul Mulshine and his ersatz opinion journalism. He's the angry old guy who makes everybody wince when he walks into the room. He's got a hard-on for SUVs, leaf blowers, and American beer, constantly railing against all 3 at every opportunity. He also arrogantly believes that only he is a True Conservative and the rest of us are "neocons" blindly following Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz into quagmire after quagmire with no plan and even less knowledge of history.
He posts his columns on NJ.com where he takes great delight in zapping comments from anyone who he deems to be intellectually inferior to himself. Curiously his definition of intellectually inferior seems to equate to "disagrees with Paul Mulshine".
The Star-Ledger where he works is indeed in trouble, but not because online classified ads are cheaper than print ads. No, his newspaper is so far in the tank for lefty liberal causes that they barely print anything even remotely resembling news anymore. Everything is slanted to toe the Democratic party line. Most of their stuff reads like it came directly from a MoveOn.org press release. On any given day their front page contains more opinion and "analysis" articles than news. Their writers are card carrying members of the bleeding heart lefty guild; no sob story is so unimportant that it can't be told in less than 5 column inches.
Those board of education meetings he waxes nostalgic over? The Star-Ledger hasn't covered them in decades. DItto for local council meetings or reports from the county freeholder boards. But Barry's pecs were Page 1.
The subscribers have voted with their dollars, and the vote was "no thanks". That's why Mulshine is upset; his paper publishes crap and he's knee deep in it.
What is sad is that a grown man is so immature or so insecure that he flips out with caustic remarks about the intelligence of anyone who disagree with him. This reaction says more about Mulshine's intelligence and maturity than about the person who is in disagreement with him.
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The arrogance and condescension of these media elites knows no bounds. The market tells them either they are doing their job poorly or their service is no longer wanted. Their response?
"You're wrong. We are wanted, you just don't realize it yet. And we're good at our jobs. You're just a bunch of idiots who wouldn't be allowed to write, in a better world.