[10394] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Journalism and the Net
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean McLinden)
Mon Feb 21 09:08:22 1994
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 1994 08:46:06 -0500 (EST)
From: Sean McLinden <sean@dsl.pitt.edu>
To: "Glenn S. Tenney" <tenney@netcom.com>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <199402210040.QAA14232@netcom9.netcom.com>
On Sun, 20 Feb 1994, Glenn S. Tenney wrote:
> Most mainstream journalists that I know rarely if ever go out there to
> prove right or wrong what someone says in such a forum as this. These
> journalists go out to find stories, to get the facts, and to report what
> they find. Sometimes, what someone says is the impetus to go digging for a
> story, but never to show whether that person was right or wrong.
A statistic that was published around the election reported that only 13
seconds out of every video minute of candidate coverage was actually the
candidate. The remainder was the press, editorializing. The press has,
alternatively, reported such "facts" as:
52% of Americans favor a Canadian-style single payer system
Less than 8% of Americans surveyed could correctly say what a single
payer system is.
Both you and Gordon give the press way too much credit. Most newspapers
and news magazines belong on the fiction shelf or, at best, entertainment
(or is it true that the most newsworthy activity to happen this week is the
rivalry between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan?).
If you don't expect too much, you won't be disappointed.
Sean
