J-Slide

A depressingly accurate headline to an essay by author and actual journalist Sydney Schanberg: Internet Only One Factor in Journalism’s Slide Into the Superficial

However, the decline in journalism was not caused by the Internet alone. The print press and television news had already been lowering their standards before the new technology became the giant in the room.

He’s quite right. Why the nets caused standards to lower is another issue.

The “news” landscape is crowded with chaff and chatter. Financial news shows on cable TV have become rooting sections, urging stock prices up for Wall Street gamblers. Their “reporters” sound just like the cheerleaders they were before the burst of the last corrupt financial bubble two years ago, which caused this Great Recession. Little of it bears any relationship to responsible journalism.