Why Do So Many American ‘Journalists’ Appear To Hate Actual Journalism?

[Purveyor]

The question was directed at Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who broke the story of NSA surveillance using material provided by on-the-lam leaker Edward Snowden. The person grilling Greenwald wasn’t a government prosecutor or a frustrated member of the intelligence community. It was David Gregory, host of NBC’s Sunday morning political talk show Meet the Press.

The show, conceived as a regular forum for holding government officials accountable to the media, long ago devolved into a forum for politicians to field softball questions dole out talking points and. So it was a remarkable moment when Gregory found his spine. Less heartening? That he found it not when facing down a powerful politico but rather a fellow member of the fourth estate.

Since the NSA surveillance story broke in June, several members of the media like Gregory have focused fire on journalists and whistleblowers rather than the government programs that Greenwald and reporters for the Washington Post revealed. In doing so, they have sparked a debate about journalists and their role in a democracy. They have also revealed that the relationship between the press and the powerful is often more accommodating than adversarial.

The uproar began when Greenwald and the Washington Post revealed government surveillance programs using information gained from Snowden, who had been working for the NSA since 2009. Americans were appalled to learn that the Obama administration seemingly had access to everything from email to Facebook to phone records. Sales of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 soared.

In response, president Obama came out in defense of his programs. “You can’t have 100% security and also have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience,” he argued. “We’re going to have to make some choices as a society.” His deputy press secretary Josh Earnest added: “the president welcomes a discussion of the tradeoffs between security and civil liberties".

more...

http://theconversation.com/why-do-so-many-american-journalists-appear-to-hate-actual-journalism-15771

[Nay]

1. IMHO, when journalism was taken over by corporate powers, it made sure that all

reporters knew what they could or could not say in order to keep their jobs.

Also, if you'll remember, investigative journalism departments were downsized to nothing back when corporate accountants deemed it too expensive. Very few newspapers even have inv journalists anymore, and that's by design. The purpose of journalism, like the purpose of education, has been removed from its original independent purpose of reporting and investigating news to just being the propaganda arm of whatever administration/corporate asshole that holds the power over the newspaper/TV station, etc.

[Lurks Often]

2. Because it would require them to put aside their beliefs and actually report the facts? n/t

[Laurian]

3. Money, money, money. There are few true journalists, anymore. There are

primarily "personalities" who just read the news as given to them, and they will not rock the fame and fortune boat they're on.

[truedelphi]

4. Good article to have up for discussing.

I wish I had saved this link, but one day when flipping through various offerings on YouTube, one of the Faux News talking Heads was illustrating all the 'priniciples of journalism" to which she and her colleagues adhered . It included such "principles" as only offering the words of the officials you're interviewing - no need for offering a different viewpoint. Also important to this "journalist" was the notion of not contradicting such an interviewee ever - your one golden rule as a Talking Head is to guarantee that you get invited back to the next Rick Perry press conference, or whatever.

I felt like I was in alternative land - but I assume that somewhere there is a"Christian" university where that YouTube is used to instruct the next generation of up and coming "journalists."

[joelz]

5. I think of David Gregory as more of

Carl Roves dance partner than a journalists.

[XemaSab]

6. There's a lot of laziness in journalism

I've read dozens of articles and even a few books where it sounded like the reporter clocked into work at 9, spent an hour on the google machine, whacked at the keyboard for two hours, and went off to a three-martini lunch.

[SoCalDem]

7. Probably because when journalism was "real", wages for doing that job were LOW

media used to be very competitive. These days there IS competition, but it's mostly about face-time & compensation.

There are many people now who don't even know that CNN used to be just news..all the time.. when there were no "shows" or "hosts".. the newsreaders sat at desks/tables and just reported news as it broke... from all over the world. A few of them became familiar to us, but in the way that a new teacher becomes familiar...not like a "star"..

[KG]

8. lots of talking heads. journalists, not so many...

[99Forever]

9. David Gregory questioning someone elses journalism?

As if that effing putz even knows what journalism actually is. He wouldn't know what journalism was if it bit him on the ass.

[reformist2]

10. They're in the biz for the wrong reasons - glamor, fame, and big bucks, mainly.

[WinkyDink]

11. Because they aspire to Show-Biz, big bucks, and appearing on "Letterman."

[East Coast Pirate]

12. And yucking it up with Don Imus.