I was pretty disappointed in this month’s cover story in Harper’s called “Final Edition.” We have pages of anecdotes about San Francisco newspaper history and then a conclusion that newspapers lost touch with the cities where they publish mostly dismissing the internet. What about newspapers that ignore their mission to inform the public? Why does the Washington Post publish lies by Sarah Palin which contradicts their own reporting? Oh, they just rushed it through so we would click on it?? Quoting Atrios, what’s it for?:
I can never quite get a handle on just what the Washington Post people – its publishers, Fred Hiatt, etc… – think that it’s for? Is it about providing a product people want to buy/advertisers want to advertise in? It is about informing readers, giving them factual information and analysis they want? Are these missions in conflict or do they coincide?
And why does it take bloggers to point out how absurd they are? Where are all the journalists who spend their days bitching about bloggers? Don’t they care that the product they’re defending is basically shit?
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