End of times, or just of journalism?
When you hear the haughty go on about the high standards and credibility of journalism, have them watch this compilation of inane reports on the end of times. Standards? What standards? Sense? What sense? Pride? What pride?
Tags: journalism
August 5th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
I’d be interested to see if anyone did a story like this in the WWI years, when global war and pestilence were at unprecedented levels. Endtimes speculation would have been just as valid then as now.
August 6th, 2006 at 12:04 am
Clearly there is a market for this kind of idiocy, or it would not be produced. But it would be nice if the “stars” of these shows were treated more like the Jerry Springers that they are, rather than the Walter Cronkites that they think they are. Only then will Paula Zahn’s condo board or Diane Sawyer’s fellow Wellesely alums be inclined to shame them into pointing their material to a demographic somewhere north of the local 7/11 crowd.
August 6th, 2006 at 4:45 am
you know we’ve been as high as 187 on the rapture index. who will be the first to put the index in the rolling headline at the bottom. would be a natural for cnbc. pinheads.
August 6th, 2006 at 10:03 am
[...] I’m very skeptical about the death of old media; not so much about the fact that distribution numbers of "old media" are in decline but more about the value of newspapers. Perhaps due to the declining numbers of newspaper sales the industry will realize that it isn’t in competition with the new media but need to find new approach that live together with the online media. One approach might be to set high standard reporting, extensive fact checking and broader coverage instead of immediate reporting. However not only that the "old media" refuse to realize that its historical place is changing but it is missing to realize bigger fact. When newspaper reports are wrong, faked, or simply has lack of any journalistic standard it will be exposed by many fact checkers and than it will be distributed in the speed of light. [...]
August 6th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Actually this is what people want. Take a look at statisics. Almost 60% of the US population is insanely believing this garbage. The old school media propably will survive because they know that Facts don’t really matter to a country filled with believers. At least the online community as no boarders so the world population is the true demographic of the new media.
October 18th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
[...] What is the reason faked news are being reported as true ones? It is a mix of pressure to bring “news”, and make them if necessary, Pre existing agenda and lack of professional ethics. What ever the reasons are, the results are bad. How can one trust the news from anywhere in the world, knowing that the reporters from the field are only paying locals for the field work, without doing any fact checking, or faking news without the locals help? [...]