The Rally to Restore Journalism

[babylonsister]

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_rally_to_restore_journalism

The Rally to Restore Journalism

In both our media and our politics, style over substance has become the status quo.

Courtney E. Martin | November 1, 2010 | web only

snip//

It is our right to demand the kind of media that will make our body politic healthier -- coverage that is more nuanced and accurate, less grandstanding and oversimplified. How do we do that? By reading, watching, and listening to the kind of media we are demanding. It's all well and good to tune into The Daily Show for 30 minutes each night, but what shows, websites, or publications are you spending your time with during the other 23.5 hours in the day?

I put a challenge to all of the fans of Stewart and Colbert, and it's one that I think both funny men would approve of: Stop watching and reading coverage that doesn't elevate the conversation and start supporting shows and publications that do. Which public intellectuals actually teach you something? Which magazines -- online or off- -- give you reporting that deepens your understanding of crucial issues rather than inflaming your fears? Have you written these news organizations letters of support or, when applicable, donated to keep their vital work going? Have you gotten involved in the vibrant media justice movement, where folks are serving as watchdogs, training citizen journalists, and developing new models for funding investigative journalism?

These questions are even more pressing at a time when media companies are struggling to stay alive. Forwarding links about Sarah Palin's latest antics or loving to hate Bill O'Reilly sends the message to news producers that you want more of the same. As Stewart said at the rally, "If we amplify everything, we hear nothing." Likewise, if we consume indiscriminately, we demand nothing.

As I left the rally and made my way down Pennsylvania Avenue, I passed the Newseum, where the front pages of newspapers from around the world cover the façade of the building. (You can see even more online, where they publish 579 front pages from 2 countries daily.) It was a powerful, though unassuming, sight -- a global collage of dogged reporting and opining, quiet in its shades of gray newsprint after so many Technicolor television montages, the dignity after the circus.

Most people walking by after the rally were too drunk on the revelry to stop and take a look.

[BootinUp]

1. Couldn't agree more. nt

[Doctor_J]

2. Amen

The addiction by self-described Dems to all of Big Media's and Hate Radio's propaganda defies common sense. Every day the pages of DU are plastered with multiple threads about Morning Intern Killer, King Glenn, Limpballs, every last fascist at Fox "news",... The sickness does not afflict only teabaggers.

[snot]

3. I've actually wondered how some DU'er's can stand to watch some of the stuff they apparently do.

I simply couldn't bear it, myself.

However, I also think we need to know what they're up to, in order to counter it.

But yeah, let's direct our support strategically.