For years, I’ve had to tell sometimes skeptical friends and family members that real journalists don’t do that. We are generally uncouth, sometimes lazy and screw up in plenty of other ways–not least when we drop stories because they seem too complicated or might make readers think we’re taking sides–but we don’t act like common criminals.
Rob is talking about the whole Rupert Murdoch scandal. It doesn’t seem to matter which industry you talk about, there are always some unscrupulous people. Rob is definitely one of the good guys.
Robber barons like Murdoch have been dominating media business for so long, I’m always surprised to find genuine journalism anywhere.
Ben Bagdikian warned the journalism world about this way back in the 80s with his book Media Monopoly. Back then it was Gannett that was the biggest problem in the US. FOX and other Murdoch companies are now. The Wall Street Journal has avoided the problem so far because of News Corps fear of losing credibility if it acts like the rest of the empire’s media properties.
And that’s exactly what would happen. The people who read the journal for its great reporting (not for it’s right wing screeds in the opinion pages) would drop it and the New York Times would get some new blood in its readership.
Real journalists know about ethics and fairness and how to produce good journalism that people actually want to read. The rest cynically think the “if it bleeds it leads” nonsense is the way to fame and fortune. And unfortunately, it is. Unfortunately, the news business dies thinking that way.