Virtual Journalist

January 22, 2003 5:01 PM

Virtual Journalist, experience the challenges of working in the liberal media. Fun but the politics are a bit heavy handed. [flash required]
posted by bobo123 (5 comments total)

Uh ... as a journalist who has been reporting and editing for 20 years, I gotta say the Virtual Journalist doesn't accurately describe how the job works.

So now left-wingers are adopting the same crude criticisms that the right-wingers have been using since the Nixon-Agnew administration. Hooray for the lefties! Emulating Spiro Agnew!
posted by Holden at 5:22 PM on January 22, 2003

Mh ok the cartoon is may a little too generalizing but..let's see some inet newspaper (just an example)

ToledoBlade.com

At 01:37 GMT it's showing the following frontpage titles:

Adoption fraud is rare, say experts. ( babies)
Ailing horses euthanized (pets)
Records say TPS knew ex-teacher abused student (sex,babies)
Toledo reins in sex shops (well, sex)
Opossum reveals clue to mammal evolution (pet)

Coincidence ? Maybe. Let's see some lines I personally consider worth clicking:

2 more nuke plants show coolant leaks
Senate is likely to confirm Ridge for homeland post

Obviously that is just my opinion and it may be a coicidence.
posted by elpapacito at 5:41 PM on January 22, 2003

I'm not a journalist with 20 years of reporting experience, I'm just a regular guy, so I can only tell you what I see from the outside.

I see journalists that refuse to raise serious issues, apparently because they fear losing the access that they need in order to survive.

I see journalists covering only the most attention grabbing stories, instead of the most important stories, in order to get the ratings they they need to survive.

I see journalists who appear to be nothing more than PR for the government.

Perhaps it seems different from within the news industry, but from the outside, it seems like the news industry is almost as useless as the letter I sent my representative asking him to carefully consider the consequences before passing legislation allowing Bush to do whatever he wants in Iraq (I got a response thanking me for my concern, and assuring me that he'd vote for it)
posted by mosch at 7:14 PM on January 22, 2003

Mosch:

For every journalist who refuses to raise serious issues, there's a journalist who puts his credibility, his career and sometimes his life on the line to report on an important story.

For every journalist covering attention-grabbing stories, there's a journalist who toils away in anonymity covering stories that never win awards but are invaluable to the community.

For every journalist who appears to be nothing more than PR for the government, there's a journalist who's been cursed by a government official for refusing to accept the party line.

There are plenty of terrible journalists out there, to be sure. But there are also many great ones. To write off the entire "news industry" as useless is, frankly, a little silly. Maybe you need to choose your news sources a little better.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 9:07 PM on January 22, 2003

Hear hear, TBoneMcCool.

I.F. Stone lives.
posted by Vidiot at 9:53 PM on January 22, 2003