Palast: My only hope for the future of journalism is one word: the Internet.

April 12, 2002 5:39 PM

Palast: My only hope for the future of journalism is one word: the Internet. This interview has everything! Condemnation of the president (in regard to current events, not just his family, and Nazi money, eugenics, insanity, etc.) and more importantly, condemnation of the press. We all know that the media strikes down important information, and that the state run BBC reports what our informers pass over silently. This article explains this phenomena, as well as the other member's of the Bin Laden family, why double pullitzer prize winners can't find work in the media, and of course, what we all know, that the internet promises an unmediated relationship between events and people. What? You don't care? Don't care how credible this guy is? Don't care about the race targeting database used to steal the election? Heard it before? Yeah, me too. Well, don't fret, there was a great link with lots of swearing earlier today. And one with Jackie Chan. o<
posted by Settle (15 comments total)

I wouldn't count on the Internet being a way of bypassing corporate/government control of news media. It's too dangerous to either, and ways will be found to prevent the damage.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:38 PM on April 12, 2002

Besides, that's two words.
posted by briank at 7:38 PM on April 12, 2002

The briankmeister...splittin' hairs with the microlaser...

If only there were as many progressive conspiracy sites as there are newbie neocon warblogs-quoting-each-others-warblogs, then there would fair and balanced, unread by the masses, factoid mongering at last.
posted by y2karl at 8:06 PM on April 12, 2002

Yeah, but one Indymedia certainly has to balance out, say, ten or twenty Reynoldses or SDBs.
posted by darukaru at 8:16 PM on April 12, 2002

The reoccuring theme is conflict of interest. You can't have a free election in a state where the the person in charge of counting votes is the co-chair of your state campaign and the governer is your bro. And you can't investigate your business partners who probably are funding terrorists.

And the media can't do real investigative reporting because they fear losing advertisers and because they're in bed with the people they reoprt on.
posted by euphorb at 9:02 PM on April 12, 2002

*duh*

did you see that?? they had to go as far as they could w/o pedalling!
posted by Settle at 11:18 PM on April 12, 2002

Remember, Palast is a real journalist, in the sense that he phones people up. (Which is what a lot of journalism basically entails.) That's how he dug up the story of how hundreds of people were illegitimately barred from the Florida polls through dubiously compiled lists of felons. You don't do that just from linking to websites. So, the way to invigorate the web as a journalistic tool is, essentially, for people to do journalism. Whether it's digging out information on local issues and putting it online (planning applications etc.) or working with buried statistics, or whatever: it's about chasing things up, rather than rehashing them or larding opinion with opinion. Of course, people are fundamentally lazy, which is why the laziest forms are the most popular.
posted by riviera at 12:10 AM on April 13, 2002

The BBC isn't state-run, it's state-funded. Which is a totally different thing.
posted by Summer at 5:31 AM on April 13, 2002

You don't do that just from linking to websites. So, the way to invigorate the web as a journalistic tool is, essentially, for people to do journalism. Whether it's digging out information on local issues and putting it online (planning applications etc.) or working with buried statistics, or whatever: it's about chasing things up, rather than rehashing them or larding opinion with opinion.

Now was it hear, hear or here, here? You know, britspeak for What riviera said? Not that I'm saying we're overloaded with coughwarblogarmchairgeneralscough opinions around here, nosiree!
posted by y2karl at 5:46 AM on April 13, 2002

And riviera offers a definitive explanation of his own presence here.
posted by dhartung at 11:33 AM on April 13, 2002

Really, dhartung, don't be such a terrible cunt.
posted by riviera at 12:45 PM on April 13, 2002

I find it amusing that people think that state funded and state run are totally different things. I would say they have a lot in common.
posted by Settle at 1:45 PM on April 13, 2002

Have you two thought about taking your act on the road?
posted by euphorb at 2:48 PM on April 13, 2002

I find it amusing that people think that state funded and state run are totally different things. I would say they have a lot in common.

It wasn't people, Settle, it was me. You can use my name, I won't cry. It think it's important to note the difference between state and government - especially when discussing editorial bias. The BBC is funded by a licence fee and is accountable - in terms of editorial independence and proper use of funds - to governors appointed by the crown (state). These people are not government or even state officials and the staff of the BBC aren't civil servants.

The government and opposition parties can complain about bias and the political affiliations of BBC employees, and often do. The BBC can't do as it likes, it has to stick to a charter, but editorial independence and accountability to the public is part of this charter. The BBC is so concerned about not cheerleading the government it refused to produce The Falklands Play for twenty years.

Pallast thinks it strange that a state-funded corporation should have more balls than independent outfits like the New York Times, but because the BBC doesn't rely on advertising revenue and because it has a remit to serve the public, not its executives or share holders, it's not really strange at all. You can argue that this system is hopelessly patrician and undemocratic, but you can't argue that it produces a service that's in the pocket of the goverment, because that's demonstrably not true.
posted by Summer at 4:50 AM on April 14, 2002

Agreed!

Now we're making progress!
posted by Settle at 10:50 PM on April 14, 2002