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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor (slightly modified)

 

…So there is this unfortunate paradox that the role of the press is to educate the public but the press will not do so until the public demands better and the public is too incompetent to demand anything worthwhile.

Nick Kallen, Responsible Technology Journalism [via Buzz Andersen]

What we tend to forget in journalism is that we got in the business to check facts. Not just to tell people what Obama said and what Gingrich said. It is groundless to say that Kagan is anti-military. So why not call it groundless? This is badly needed when people are being flooded with information.

Ron Fournier, Washington Bureau Chief for the Associated Press, quoted by Greg Sargent in Who woulda thunk it: Fact-checking is popular! [via Duncan Black]

…whatever it is that dominates cable news, it is largely not journalism.

Terry McDermott, Dumb Like a Fox

"Reporting" via Google Trends

Rogers Cadenhead: “There are a lot of online news sites and blogs that use Google Trends as their assignment desk, churning out poorly researched stories quickly to capitalize on a hot news search term.”

I’ve seen great talents get laid off from the Washington Post, and they can look squarely at the folks who choose to have Sarah Palin opine on science if they want to see why part of their institution is failing.

Anil Dash, interviewed by The Morning News

The failure of newspapers is not a failure of imagination or foresight nor is it a failure of individuals. This kind of failure is the hallmark of all institutions in the face of tectonic disruption.

Joshua-Michéle Ross, Stop Giving the Newspapers Your Advice — They Don’t Need It

We would refuse to do stenography and call it journalism. If one faction or party to a dispute is lying, we would say so, with the accompanying evidence. If we learned that a significant number of people in our community believed a lie about an important person or issue, we would make it part of an ongoing mission to help them understand the truth.

Dan Gillmor, Eleven Things I’d Do If I Ran a News Organization [via Boing Boing]

Work formerly done by reporters and producers is now routinely performed by political operatives and amateur ideologues of one stripe or another, whose goal is not to educate the public but to win. This is a trend not likely to change.

Mark Bowden, The Story Behind the Story

The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America’s flora. Only now, it’s being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest.

Rick Perlstein, In America, Crazy is a Preexisting Condition: Birthers, Health Care Hecklers and the Rise of Right-Wing Rage

…as time went by I think that knowledgeable, responsible commentators got tired of the [taking head] format, decided it was a very poor way of getting their points across, and mostly stopped doing it. Also, scholars will tend to agree with each other too often to make good television. So they were replaced by political hacks who know that their only job is to get the talking points of the day across and do everything possible to discredit their opponent. This has led to a deterioration in discourse that benefits those most willing to be outrageous.

Bruce Bartlett, on why the media is apt to allow discredited ideas on the air nowadays

Oh, to be a state or local official in America over the next 10 to 15 years, before somebody figures out the business model [to replace newspapers]. To gambol freely across the wastelands of an American city, as a local politician! It’s got to be one of the great dreams in the history of American corruption.

David Simon, quoted in Newspapers last bastion against political corruption, says creator of The Wire

In short: We who publish must learn how to say what we don’t know at least as well as we say what we know.

Jeff Jarvis, Product v. Process Journalism: The Myth of Perfection v. Beta Culture [via]