I wonder if the soulless, dry approach to journalism as a recitation of facts is one that relies on the authority of the institution publishing it and the audience's obeyance. I think people used to want the authority of 'facts' to ground their sense of the outside world. Now, I think people want 'truth' - I just don't know how much they're willing to bend outside their own interpretation anymore. It's just that news media doesn't even try to tell a rich, whole story that would draw people in.
I do miss her prose, but this particular lecture has aged like milk. I can't know if Ms Ivins would be pleased by the development, but "truth above and beyond the facts" has actually become the ethos of the narrative journalism practiced today by many of the same establishment papers of which she complains, and has as much if not more of a misleading effect on the audience as the despised "objectivity" doctrine. If, for example, Joe Doaks is suspected of lying, or a legislative committee vote bought, then a news reporter ought to find out. The truth or falsehood of these accusations are the facts, and to discover and report facts is the virtue of a news reporter. "Reporting" and "journalism" are not synonyms; the former is encompassed by the latter, as is opinion and advocacy. Moreover, a writer or editor basing decisions about which facts to report or not report, or which stories to investigate or not investigate on a prejudice as to what the cosmic "truth" must be, or on some cultic appraisal of how the work relates to societal power dynamics is a self-inflicted failure of discipline, and, in terms of serving the reader, not far short of lying. Former New York Times editor James Bennet's long essay in the The Economist from last December contains a vivid and depressing account of all these problems ascendant within our venerable newspaper of record. I wish Molly had been alive to read it.
She was a treasure.
She was so f’ing good ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I am glad she didn't have to witness Trump as President
i wish I would have discovered her and her reporting while she was still alive.
So am glad we have her hear.
I wear my glasses on my nose like that.
I wonder if the soulless, dry approach to journalism as a recitation of facts is one that relies on the authority of the institution publishing it and the audience's obeyance. I think people used to want the authority of 'facts' to ground their sense of the outside world. Now, I think people want 'truth' - I just don't know how much they're willing to bend outside their own interpretation anymore. It's just that news media doesn't even try to tell a rich, whole story that would draw people in.
I use my words. I'm a fan of the curse words. When applicable. Daily
I do miss her prose, but this particular lecture has aged like milk. I can't know if Ms Ivins would be pleased by the development, but "truth above and beyond the facts" has actually become the ethos of the narrative journalism practiced today by many of the same establishment papers of which she complains, and has as much if not more of a misleading effect on the audience as the despised "objectivity" doctrine. If, for example, Joe Doaks is suspected of lying, or a legislative committee vote bought, then a news reporter ought to find out. The truth or falsehood of these accusations are the facts, and to discover and report facts is the virtue of a news reporter. "Reporting" and "journalism" are not synonyms; the former is encompassed by the latter, as is opinion and advocacy. Moreover, a writer or editor basing decisions about which facts to report or not report, or which stories to investigate or not investigate on a prejudice as to what the cosmic "truth" must be, or on some cultic appraisal of how the work relates to societal power dynamics is a self-inflicted failure of discipline, and, in terms of serving the reader, not far short of lying. Former New York Times editor James Bennet's long essay in the The Economist from last December contains a vivid and depressing account of all these problems ascendant within our venerable newspaper of record. I wish Molly had been alive to read it.
Boo!
@@goodrichdirt1 In a nutshell.
To F*n bad.
Intellectual ? Not