Journalism – the business lesson

Pretty soon, unless they decide to recognize that things are wrong, most journalists are going to be saying "want fries with that?".  Newspaper circulations are down all over at the large city dailies, the broadcast news (ABC, NBC, CBS) shows are down, and it is clear that the liberal biases are showing big time.  With the New Media (like us!) doing the checking for them that they don’t want to do (or acknowledge that they need), more and more often it is clear that quality assurance and straight up new reporting is lacking.

So, when the best businessman among them has words for them to ponder, they ought to listen.  Robert Murdoch has it right – it seems that many see journalism as a sacred calling, rising above the masses; instead, it is a business that is supposed to have a product that consumers should want…

…but don’t:

"The complacency stems from having enjoyed a monopoly–and now finding they have to compete for an audience they once took for granted. The condescension that many show their readers is an even bigger problem. It takes no special genius to point out that if you are contemptuous of your customers, you are going to have a hard time getting them to buy your product. Newspapers are no exception."

As with all monopolies, people get lazy.  They prance through the motions of doing the work and why not?  With no competition, where is the sense of urgency to succeed?

And many in the media seem very condescending towards me, a conservative.  No, you don’t have to cater to me but neither should you treat me as a Neanderthalic bigoted right winger (even if I am on the right wing).  It is a good question – tell me, why DO I want to buy your product?  I’m not a masochist – I really don’t want to be paying for a rag that disses my views.  Disagree?  Fine, do it intelligently – or lose my business.

"It used to be that a handful of editors could decide what was news-and what was not. They acted as sort of demigods. If they ran a story, it became news. If they ignored an event, it never happened. Today editors are losing this power. The Internet, for example, provides access to thousands of new sources that cover things an editor might ignore. And if you aren’t satisfied with that, you can start up your own blog and cover and comment on the news yourself. Journalists like to think of themselves as watchdogs, but they haven’t always responded well when the public calls them to account."

And this is one of the biggest reason, I feel, that journalism has circled the wagons – it is a loss of power.  For all of modern time, journalists have been the equivalent of the "news flappers" in determining what news reached the masses.  The gatekeeper function has now vanished with the advent of millions of citizen journalists deciding what they want to read, and better yet, talk about.

"Far from celebrating this citizen journalism, the establishment media reacted defensively. During an appearance on Fox News, a CBS executive attacked the bloggers in a statement that will go down in the annals of arrogance. ’60 Minutes,’ he said, was a professional organization with ‘multiple layers of checks and balances.‘ By contrast, he dismissed the blogger as ‘a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.’ But eventually it was the guys sitting in their pajamas who forced Mr. Rather and his producer to resign.

"Mr. Rather and his defenders are not alone," he continued. "A recent American study reported that many editors and reporters simply do not trust their readers to make good decisions. Let’s be clear about what this means. This is a polite way of saying that these editors and reporters think their readers are too stupid to think for themselves." 

That last line – is it just journalists that think this?  I think not – just look at how stupid liberal politicians think the rest of us are – after all, aren’t most laws passed because they think we are too stupid to make good decisions on our own?

Don’t know what’s news, can’t figure out what’s important, unable to interpret current events, not able to be trusted to make good decisions, and spend money on stuff other than what they think we should – where would we be without Liberals?