A thought: If journalists did their actual jobs, would they be in danger of losing their jobs? I remember on your panel at Yearly Kos that someone—Carney, perhaps?—reiterated the rock and a hard place situation journalists are in with regards to access. You kiss the asses of power to get access, and if you don’t get that access because you do your job (calling bullshit), maybe you get fired because you’ve alienated yourself from the press rooms of power?

I buy the “rock and a hard place” argument to a certain extent, but think it’s limited. It assumes that “the news” involves what is said in the press conferences and releases rather than the views of the people affected by policies, or the archives of documentation that are either publicly available, or can be ferreted out with FOIA. If the press did their jobs, they would have more than enough ammunition to say, “this story is going to run, will you go on the record with more than ‘no comment’?”

And well, there is a branch of journalism that favors the voices of activists and organizers rather than those in power. It’s a matter of what you value.

Agreed, CBrach, but that’s not quite my point. My point is that the media bosses hold journalists’ feet to the fire. Your ability to get and keep a job is indeed dependent on not doing the job, if that makes sense. Good journalists tend to work for the alt weeklies or go to work for the AP and are sent on the worst missions. If you want a good paycheck and a job in an office, you’re better off being a hack like Nedra Pickler rather than someone who’s actually out there uncovering stories and not carrying water for the Republicans.

“If you want a good paycheck and a job in an office, you’re better off being a hack like Nedra Pickler rather than someone who’s actually out there uncovering stories and not carrying water for the Republicans.”

Yep. Glenn Greenwald has documented this in excruciating detail.

[...] to appreciate is that bloggers and regular journalists complement each other. More at The Impolitic and at [...]

Feh; thats rich. An opinion piece blasting blogs for being giant opinion pieces. Notice how he didn’t let the chance to shamelessly promote himself pass; “Look at me, I’M a reporter because I got a Pulitzer for writing about the heroic reporting that other people did.” It shouldn’t be guys like him getting pulitzers; it should be the guys from Knight-Ridder who rode the story of Iraq war Propaganda from the first day Shrub mentioned uranium til the present. This guy keeps on at the safe stories that the fat cats want to hear and he gets an award for it, then smugly sits back and blasts the citizens for trying to do a job they aren’t even trying to do.

Good thing we’ve got guys like him keeping us informed and the Government honest.

The vast majority of bloggers are apolitical. They just want to earn a living. They blog about technology, parenting, food, whatever… And they slap up ads to help pay the bills or they write sponsored posts. It’s usually a part-time gig to make a little extra money.

And that’s just the American bloggers. We call them “blue-collar bloggers” because they usually do it for money, not for anything else.

But most bloggers aren’t even American. There are more Japanese blogs than English blogs.
AND among the most popular blogs, MSM still ranks highest. They have more blogs that are popular as well as more popular blogs. (source)

All references to “bloggers” as one type of writer is just plain wrong. It just goes to show (yet again) how off the MSM is that they don’t know what blogging is about or about how easily it’s getting co-opted by marketers and advertisers who just buy a little ad space here and there.

boy, talk about backhanded catty insults. Jeepers, if you didn’t have dignitude, I don’t think you’d really have much to say.

[...] if you will and he isn’t fond of bloggers. M’s Jill, a rather good blogger replys, Dear Michael Skube, You seem to be under the impression that bloggers want to do away with the journalistic [...]

It does seem to be a pretty widely accepted axiom among bloggers of all stripes that blogs are making “MSM” irrelevant. I agree with you, though without the institutional support of commercial news, blogs could never be the bastion of legitimate journalism that some seem to expect them to become.

Here’s done it before, Jill. That’s why I told him he should just retire.

You know, if I hear one more person tell me, the wide-eyed silly little lib’ral girl, that money exists and I have to take that into account, I’m going to puke.

Drug pushers exist to make money, too — newspapers are constitutionally protected for a reason, because their stated purpose is more than money.

So kindly take your BS attitude of the grizzled veteran of the Real World telling the little bleeding hearts all about Big, Bad Money, roll it into a right cylinder, and shove it in the out-door.

Christ, I’m sick of that freaking attitude that we’re a bunch of deluded children who need to be told how the world works. If your money isn’t in hedge fund territory and your kid ain’t in Iraq, STFU about edumacatin the silly lib’rals on the ways of the grown-ups, okay? I’m probably older than you are, you goddamned brat.

Stated purpose by who?

Newspapers exist only to make money. That is what a corporation is.

How hard is that to understand?

The vast majority of bloggers are apolitical. They just want to earn a living. They blog about technology, parenting, food, whatever… And they slap up ads to help pay the bills or they write sponsored posts. It’s usually a part-time gig to make a little extra money.

Well, I would argue that most bloggers are not really interested in making money either. Writing online diaries or serial fiction is just a hobby that they share with loosely connected communities.

I Wouldn’t Want to Attend His Journalism School…

It’s too bad that journalism professor Skube doesn’t realize that, at least based on his op-ed, that he too, is just another guy with a blog….

[...] For another, perhaps better answer to Skube, click here. [...]

But you are threatening their livelihood. They used to be able to just make shit up to fill in a thaetrical framework, and even when individual “A” or individual “B” happened to know they were lying, there was nothing “A” or “B” could do to undermine their creative work. Because they controlled printing presses and television studios and “A” and “B” did not.

What a job! Not only does it pay pretty good but also that’s got to be a ton of fun. Just reporting news depends upon the news, which cramps an artist’s style, while fabricating “news” depends only on one’s imagination. Not too many jobs give the laborer such freedom, such scope. And you, you mean awful person, you’re taking their fun away!