Archive for the ‘media’ tag
How can we protect democracy if we’re ‘Losing the News’?
In his book, “Losing the News,” (2009, Oxford University Press Inc., New York, NY) Pulitzer-prize winning writer and Greeneville native Alex Jones likens the daily aggregation of fact-based “accountability news,” or “news of verification,” to an iron-core sphere of fact-based information. “It is the form of news whose purpose is to hold government and those with power accountable,” Jones writes.
That is as opposed to “‘news of assertion,’ that is mostly on display these days in prime time on cable news channels and blogs.” Others who live in the land of ‘news of assertion’ include editorial writers, stand-up comics and “pseudo-journalists” (my words), whom will remain unnamed.
“Traditional journalists have long believed that this form of fact-based accountability news is the essential food supply of democracy and that without enough of this healthy nourishment, democracy will weaken, sicken, or even fail. … It is the nation’s newspapers that provide the vast majority of iron core news.”
Jones estimates “85 percent professionally reported accountability news comes from newspapers, but I have heard guesses from credible sources that go as high as 95 percent.”
So, it would seem that if newspapers were to cease to exist, as some pundits are fond of predicting, it would seem no one would have anything to assert. Thus, everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Jon Stewart would have nothing to say — well, nothing fact-based to say, anyway.
I’ve only scratched the surface of this book, but it’s already fascinating stuff.
When heading off to work, I sometimes jokingly say, “Well, I’m off to protect democracy.”
If Jones is correct, there’s more truth to that statement than I imagined.
Streaming live Michael Jackson video
Whatever one thinks of the spectacle that is currently under way in Los Angeles, the media coverage of Michael Jackson’s funeral seems unprecedented in this digital age.
The Associated Press is providing a raw, live video feed that can be accessed by our readers using this short URL.
Interestingly enough, when there is no other voiceover, you can hear the cameraman’s comments. There is the occasional “Oh, God,” as well as various other mutterings.
They’ve now switched to the Staples Center in anticipation of the memorial service.
We can’t help but watch it unfold and pray it’s without incident.