Like Tiny Tim, Cindy Lou Who, George Bailey and Hermey the Misfit Elf, I too have some Christmas wishes as this Year from Hell for journalists comes to a merciful end. It is my Christmas wish that media company managers stop laying off the most experienced of their news gatherers, whether they work in print, TV, radio or the Web. This nasty economy is turning into some very handy camouflage for dumping big salaries that not so long ago were viewed as investments.
Web 2.0 may be democratic and all that, but beyond specialized services like Tech News World, E-Commerce Times and Computerworld, it's a tough place to find objective news written by pros who know and respect classical journalism. In the vast ocean of blogs you find the message in a bottle only if you get lucky.
During the past few weeks, while Barack Obama announced his cabinet appointments, the Real News I hungered for was well-researched profiles of those individuals who will be running the country next year. Lotsa luck. The best sources for that information turned out to be Google and Wikipedia.
In blogs I found mostly rants. On cable TV I found only hyper-opinionated guest panelists screaming at each other across anchor desks.
CNN, Fox, CNBC, and MSNBC squandered most of their air time re-running that shot of a guy throwing his shoes at President Bush. I lost count of the number of slo-mo replays of that scene -- almost certainly it was in the tens of thousands.
But there were no biographical profiles.
I have a suggestion: Arise, ye unemployed journalists, and create a forum where facts are in fashion once more. Kinda like Who, What, Where, When and How. Maybe Bill Gates and Warren Buffett could fund a "Really Real News" service both on cable and the Web. Right now it's a black hole.
While speculatin' and opinionatin' are having their field day, if there is good news it is this: Because the likes of Time-Warner and Rupert Murdoch have mismanaged their empires, they've created a journalistic vacuum that needs to be filled. Somewhere, somehow, that represents an opportunity. There is a great need for factual reporting. Now more than ever.
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My Wish List for a Beleaguered Profession
Posted by: Renay San Miguel December 19, 2008 04:00 AMLike Tiny Tim, Cindy Lou Who, George Bailey and Hermey the Misfit Elf, I too have some Christmas wishes as this Year from Hell for journalists comes to a merciful end. It is my Christmas wish that media company managers stop laying off the most experienced of their news gatherers, whether they work in print, TV, radio or the Web. This nasty economy is turning into some very handy camouflage for dumping big salaries that not so long ago were viewed as investments.
During the past few weeks, while Barack Obama announced his cabinet appointments, the Real News I hungered for was well-researched profiles of those individuals who will be running the country next year. Lotsa luck. The best sources for that information turned out to be Google and Wikipedia.
In blogs I found mostly rants. On cable TV I found only hyper-opinionated guest panelists screaming at each other across anchor desks.
CNN, Fox, CNBC, and MSNBC squandered most of their air time re-running that shot of a guy throwing his shoes at President Bush. I lost count of the number of slo-mo replays of that scene -- almost certainly it was in the tens of thousands.
But there were no biographical profiles.
I have a suggestion: Arise, ye unemployed journalists, and create a forum where facts are in fashion once more. Kinda like Who, What, Where, When and How. Maybe Bill Gates and Warren Buffett could fund a "Really Real News" service both on cable and the Web. Right now it's a black hole.
While speculatin' and opinionatin' are having their field day, if there is good news it is this: Because the likes of Time-Warner and Rupert Murdoch have mismanaged their empires, they've created a journalistic vacuum that needs to be filled. Somewhere, somehow, that represents an opportunity. There is a great need for factual reporting. Now more than ever.
-Bill Warriner (Opinion)