The Economic Mess and Journalism
Websters.com defines Solipsism as "extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption." That really is the only term that I can think of to describe this Frederick News-Post editorial.
A U.S. Senate hearing of Jan. 21 on the financial crisis asks, "Where were the watchdogs?" Well, don't look anytime soon for the traditional watchdogs to be on the lookout, as the newspaper industry falters more each day, scraping by with fewer resources at the same time it faces loomingly larger responsibilities.The FNP editors believe that the failing banks are punishing the newspapers they have lent to by forcing newspapers out of business and thus there are no watchdogs left.
As the traditional model of the newspaper industry continues to be degraded, our very democracy is threatened. How can newspapers be expected to serve as vigilant watchdogs when economic factors and insane banking practices slaughter major newspapers seemingly daily?
The very financial institutions that need watching the most are the ones responsible for pressuring newspapers out of existence. Does anyone out there see the irony?
Joe Leiberman asked, "Is the existing U.S. financial regulatory system adequately equipped to protect consumers, investors, and our economy?" A new report from the Government Accountability Office "lays out a very persuasive case that the answer to that big question is 'no.'"
Our very democracy is threatened by the fact that journalism, and specifically time-honored print journalism, is facing economic hardships that the industry may not survive. Layer on top of these dramatic industry changes this current economic crisis, and join the predictors of the newspapers' demise.
This newspaper actually believes that because newspapers report news that might be harmful or critical of the banking system, that the banking system is out to get them. I am sorry, but that is the height of egotism. This newspaper is of the mindset that the financial and business crisis in the newspaper industry led to the demise of our financial system. Could there be connections? Maybe, I don't know enough to say for certain, but based on what I see, there are no causal connections.
Print media has been hammered by the rise of internet reporting, fast access, less than 24 hour newscycle cable news and interet reporting for long before our financial system began melting down. Would the financial mess have been headed off or made less worse if we knew about it from newspapers earlier? Perhaps, but unlikely.
Is journalism a watchdog in our society? Yes, I would say that journalism, whether in the august print medium the FNP lauds or the new, internet based media is a watchdog of government and society as a whole. There were lots of people raising red flags about the shaky financial structures in America and most of them were not journalists, but experts and insiders. The early information about the cracks in the structures were not from beat reporters but from people who reported directly to the world. The ease of putting ideas and information directly into the public sphere has rendered the printed newspaper a little less necessary than it used to be. The people that once were the "Deep Throats" and other sources for newspaper writers can now go straight to the public forum and be heard.
This editorial though highlights the problem of American print journalism--they have an over inflated sense of their place in the world.
2 comments:
It's not just "Print" (ode to the soon-departing Baltimore Examiner Newspaper), but electronic media journalism (radio/tv) that has been suffering too. The consumers are not buying, the sellers are not making sales, they go under, and the ad revenue stops. How many Circuit City ads will you see on tv, or in print, after they close the doors for the last time? None.
The paper may have a high opinion of itself, but journalism is not dying because of the banks, it's dying because many in the media no longer practice it. They are too busy having leg-tingle moments with the new team in power in Washington.
Actually, I think the 21st century definition of solipsism is blogging...
Could it be that, since the biggest funding of journalism is the AUTO ads and REAL ESTATE ads in the paper (something not jeopardized by the cottage cheese published on the internet), the irony referred to is NOT the one you described. Rather, the irony is that print media is funded by those very things threatened by the unethical practices of the financial industry--low home sales and car sales. It's deja vu for those of us who remember the Savings and Loan collapse of the 1980s, triggered by the identical lending practices that made millionaires out of the Keating 5. That financial collapse caused the last big recession in autos and homebuying, which was the last time there were such large layoffs in print media. Unfortunately, the "liberal media" is profit driven, just like all businesses, and don't oversee very well the industries their wealthy publishers depend on for more money.
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