How can journalism possibly recover their legitimacy? Will they stay like this, fall, or step back from the cliff? - They're never going to die until their aging viewers do, but it is happening

[Haim Arlosoroff]

Journalism is a little bit shit these days.

Journalists drink too much, are bad at managing emotions, and operate at a lower level than average, according to a new study - May 19, 2017

We need to talk about Alex Jones - August 6, 2018

Will Rachel Maddow face a reckoning over her Trump-Russia coverage? - March 28, 2019

CNN hemorrhaging viewers since Trump left office, down nearly 50% in key measurables - March 17, 2021

How overblown Russiagate coverage conditioned people to distrust elections - January 28, 2021

Can anyone explain to me how the average person reads journalism during and after the era of Trump unironically and believes everything they read? Why isn't everyone caught up to date on the complete breakdown of journalism (whether its top down hiring practices or general ineptitude among graduates is debatable)? My breaking point(s) was when time and again we could only talk about the things Leftism wanted to talk about and anything else was off topic (and never ever discussed later on). Pro-Trump guests early on were consistently good at shoving topics the left didn't want to think about into the discussions the liberal media brought them on to talk with.

 

[A Welsh Cake]

I think journalists are still gonna be around for a sadly long time. I feel like I’m the only person I know who holds scepticism of the entire profession instead of just the tabloids. Like, people are still eating up the George Floyd narrative and I know not to contradict them as the BBC are somehow more trust worthy than the evidence presented in a court of law and I am pursuing a job in the public sector.

 

[Arm Pit Cream]

damn 5 random articles? you really destroyed the Fourth Estate

 

[Radical Cadre]

Can anyone explain to me how the average person reads journalism during and after the era of Trump unironically and believes everything they read?

Oh that's easy. They thought Walter Cronkite was on-the-level and that 60 minutes told them the truth. Why would Rachael Maddow lie to them? If she was wrong for three and a half years, she would have apologized. And she didn't, so clearly Russia owned Trump.

I hear it every time I visit my parents. It is real. And it is certifiably horrifying. Boomers like my parents never trusted the media and were always skeptical of them. And then suddenly Trump came along and they decided to believe people that they knew were liars. I have no explanation. It is astounding.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

I think journalists are still gonna be around for a sadly long time. I feel like I’m the only person I know who holds scepticism of the entire profession instead of just the tabloids. Like, people are still eating up the George Floyd narrative and I know not to contradict them as the BBC are somehow more trust worthy than the evidence presented in a court of law and I am pursuing a job in the public sector.

Check out Matt Taibbi. He's a journalist who fucking hates journalists. Including himself. Especially himself.

 

[Ita Mori]

> "these days"

Journalism has always carried the stench it has today. It simply used to serve a different master is all.

 

[contradiction of terns]

Journalism isn't going anywhere. They had the big hoo-rah over Yellow Journalism in the '20s, if I recall correctly, and all that happened was the journos jumped on the government's dick for WW II, then briefly straightened out their act for the 50s and 60s. Now they've come full circle to Yellow Journalism again.

People will get upset, demand reform, the journos will pretend to clean up their act, then begin to slip again as they start to feel safe and beyond reproach. Rinse and repeat. Predictable as the sunrise.

 

[Haim Arlosoroff]

Journalism isn't going anywhere. They had the big hoo-rah over Yellow Journalism in the '20s, if I recall correctly, and all that happened was the journos jumped on the government's dick for WW II, then briefly straightened out their act for the 50s and 60s. Now they've come full circle to Yellow Journalism again.

So Biden is going to invade Iran and/or Venezuela to put them on the petrodollar, journalism is going to become a little less shit in the 2050s/2060s right about when I'm out of this life, and finally right back into being shitty again later? Fuck me that's grim.

 

[KingCoelacanth]

Can anyone explain to me how the average person reads journalism during and after the era of Trump unironically and believes everything they read? Why isn't everyone caught up to date on the complete breakdown of journalism (whether its top down hiring practices or general ineptitude among graduates is debatable)?

For the same reason propaganda works around the world and people still believe religious texts of miracles and gods written thousands of years ago. People are generally not rational, believe what is put before them and will take the easiest way through life.
Turning on your tv to learn how to think and accepting those thoughts is human nature.

Also the purpose of journalism is to influence people, even the with the creation of freedom of press, all the publications written by the founding fathers were just propaganda pieces to influence people to their ideals. There never was nor will there ever be objective journalism, journalists will always report on or hide facts, data and events to best suit what they think is a true reflection of the world (which is of course they're personal view of the world)

 

[Pixy]

Just read a different newspaper that panders to the truths you want to see.

 

[contradiction of terns]

So Biden is going to invade Iran and/or Venezuela to put them on the petrodollar, journalism is going to become a little less shit in the 2050s/2060s right about when I'm out of this life, and finally right back into being shitty again later? Fuck me that's grim.

Sort of? Basically, the journos pushed America into the Spanish-American war and everyone got upset and demanded reform because they didn't like the idea of our journos having that much influence. Here is some good reading on it.

It would take too long to go into the impact of WW II and the government's propaganda efforts on journalism, but long story short, following WW II there was legislation to shut down propaganda and to prevent the government from using propaganda on the American public.

Obama overturned it during his second term, I believe. Thanks, Obama!

Edit: A word.

 

[NeoGAF Lurker]

Yellow journalism never went away but saw a brief era of “legitimacy” in the 1950s through the 1970s; as many things boomers liked, it was pure fantasy.

The media’s propaganda efforts are still pretty effective; 95%+ of the people here parrot the media talking points of Charlottesville and the January 6 rally uncritically. When people who supposedly claim to hate the media still listen to everything they have to say, it doesn’t seem like the media is in much trouble as people think. It may reduce headcount as an industry but its propaganda is as strong as ever.

 

[Exorbital Columnations]

Check out Matt Taibbi. He's a journalist who fucking hates journalists. Including himself. Especially himself.

Self-hating faggots are sadly still not based.

 

[Niggernerd]

Check out Matt Taibbi. He's a journalist who fucking hates journalists. Including himself. Especially himself.

He has to prove it with a gun to his head. In roblox

 

[agility_]

Journalism might be an even bigger waste of life than any of those "____ studies" most universities offer.

 

[ZeCommissar]

Journalists have always been over sensational lying scumbags trying to push a agenda ever since the printing press became a thing. To find unbiased true journalism that actually tries to report the truth is really rare, and they are usually unpopular compared to big media.

The only real way to stop it temporarily is to scare the shit out of them and they'll go into some dark hole and appear again slowly like cockroaches.

 

[Pixy]

Sort of? Basically, the journos pushed America into the Spanish-American war and everyone got upset and demanded reform because they didn't like the idea of our journos having that much influence. Here is some good reading on it.

The article says this:

“But this notion lives on because, like most media myths, it makes for a delicious tale, one readily retold,” Campbell says. “It also strips away complexity and offers an easy-to-grasp, if badly misleading, explanation about why the country went to war in 1898.”

The myth also survives, Campbell says, because it purports the power of the news media at its most malignant. “That is, the media at their worst can lead the country into a war it otherwise would not have fought,” he says.

If anything, it's disproving your statement, unfortunately.

 

[L50LasPak]

Maybe you should learn to make up your own mind about things, and do your own research on every topic. If you can't be bothered to spend time on something, maybe its not worth it in the first place.

I hate journalists probably more than a lot of people on this website, but the more I read these rage pieces about how journalists are such obvious liars I've begun to think that maybe its your fault, dear reader/viewer, for being so gullible in the first place. And for not having a functional sense of judgment to anchor down your perception of reality.

If people were really smarter than this stuff, we wouldn't be here in the first place would we.

 

[contradiction of terns]

The article says this:



If anything, it's disproving your statement, unfortunately.

Eh. I realized after I posted it that they were laying the "the heckin' journolinos dindu nuffin" routine on pretty thick.

Luckily for me, while the author disagrees on whether journos were wholly responsible for the war, it also says this (in fact, it's part of the opening paragraph):

Newspapers at the time screamed outrage, with headlines including, “Who Destroyed the Maine? $50,000 Reward,” “Spanish Treachery” and “Invasion!”

If that's not "pushing the country towards going to war" then we might simply have an unreconcilable difference of opinion on what encouraging someone to do something looks like.

 

[LaxerBRO]

Journalism isn't going anywhere. They had the big hoo-rah over Yellow Journalism in the '20s, if I recall correctly, and all that happened was the journos jumped on the government's dick for WW II, then briefly straightened out their act for the 50s and 60s. Now they've come full circle to Yellow Journalism again.

People will get upset, demand reform, the journos will pretend to clean up their act, then begin to slip again as they start to feel safe and beyond reproach. Rinse and repeat. Predictable as the sunrise.

This is why the public needs to keep the pressure cranked to 11 even after they reform. They are non-violently attacked even when they are doing exactly as wanted. You cannot allow complacency, they are not deserving of it nor will they ever deserve it.