Politicians may be forgiven for distorting their past actions. Governments may also be excused for promoting whatever narrative they believe best suits them. Journalism, however, is supposed to remain apart from the power elite and its inbred mendacity. In this crisis it has failed miserably.


goobster:

Any time anyone uses the term "The Media", red flags should wave, klaxons should sound, and Thor's hammer should come down and boop the person on the head.

The Media is not a thing. It's like saying The Rivers, or The Mountains, or The Russians. "The Media" is a useless term because it is so over-broad as to be meaningless.

Serious, interesting, and insightful articles have been written in serious old school media, in modern media darlings, and even on comedy sites.

The work is out there, for those who seek it.

Syria is a fucking mess, for many, many reasons. A 500, 1000, 1500, or 5000 word article can NEVER delve far enough, because there is just too much of a mess to parse out easily. A Journalist needs to figure out how to tell a story in the space they have available, that is going to be meaningful and illustrative of the wider issues being faced in a complex situation. It is, necessarily, reductionist.

Calling out specific journalists for lazy writing is useful. Blaming a target as broad and ill-defined as "The Media" is useless and meaningless.

(No offense intended to you rrrrr. Seriously. I feel Hubski is a place for superior quality discourse and conversation, and we can do better than running with a cheap, sensationalist title of an OpEd piece. My post is a call for intellectual integrity for all Hubskis... not a specific attack on you.)


posted 2987 days ago