Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Churnalism

If the Government just send their press releases straight to bloggers, or put them up on the web, maybe we won't miss the MSM as much as we thought.

Left-wing Guardian :

Pointing to recent convictions of white supremicists, and the broader rise in overt racism, Denham will say: "It is important that local Muslim communities do not feel that they are being singled out if other forms of extremism are a threat in the area."


Right-wing Telegraph :

Pointing to recent convictions of white supremacists, and a broader rise in overt racism, Mr Denham will say: “It is important that local Muslim communities do not feel that are being singled out if other forms of extremism are a threat in the area”.

13 comments:

Foxy Brown said...

Among the first sites that I visit whenever I log on to the net are:

1)You.
2)Guido.
3)Dr. Crippen.
4)Old Holborn.
5)DK.
6)Ambush Predator.

And I learn far more about the state of this country from all of you than the "dead tree press" or AlBeeb/Brown's Broadcasting Corp.

Anonymous said...

The government may as well be sending out a coded message to it's propaganda agents: relativise away jihadism.

Next up, "Arkan's Tigers" and the Izebegovic's plan to impose Sharia law on Bosnia, they are both equally bad and have the same psychological wellspring: "extremism" and "intolerance".

Malthebof said...

I have long thought that journalists now longer exist. Listen to them on the TV & radio their reports consist of unquestioning reading of government/company/think tank reports.

Laban said...

Thank you Foxy. Nice to see you back.

Dr Crippen is excellent, isn't he. The Magistrate's not bad either - a bleeding heart, but he tells it like he sees it - even if you and I would draw different conclusions to him.

Dan said...

As a very former journalist, with a background in regional and national newspapers, and with absolutely no dog in the death-of-newspapers fight, I do worry slightly about this celebration (by your commenters and others) of the impending demise of the 'dead tree press'/'MSM'.

No-one thinks newspapers are perfect, but this is more an argument for improving them than getting rid of them.

And even if they didn't improve, I can (almost literally) think of nothing worse than no journalism at all.

Bad as much of it is, incompetent as many of them are, the possibility of some good journalism makes those in power think, if only from time to time.

The absence of independent scrutiny is a horrifying thought.

Anonymous said...

The absence of independent scrutiny is a horrifying thought.

So, where is all this independent scrutiny then? The phrase "conspicuous by its absence" springs to mind.

Why are the journalists of the world not hammering the great and not so good on climategate 24/7? Why do they acquiesce to the MONA phenomonen so easily and so on etc.

Reading someone like Steve Sailer is a jarring reminder that most 'real' journalists are woefully below the standards we expect or they claim to set themselves. Sailer largely relies on the internet. 'Real' journalists have contacts, some access to the centres of power, newspaper archives. How about access to research materials that are not open to the public - how often do we see reports that cherry pick bits of studies and then make up a story? A few times I've tried to track back on these stories and hit a wall where I'm expected to pay to see a study from some university. Well fair enough but given that 'real' journalists do can get access to these kinds of data I bloody well expect them to use it - they don't. They want to "tell a story", I dont want them to tell a story I want them to get on with that independent scrutiny. Its about time that some distinction was made between real journalists and people who want to tell a story.

Sgt Troy said...

Denham

Marxist scrote crowing on top of the dunghill they've thrown up

Weekend Yachtsman said...

The Telegraph isn't really right-wing any more.

After all, it supports David Cameron and pushes the Gobal Warming stuff at every opportunity.

Dan said...

Anon - where's all the independent scrutiny? Sitting in the magistrates and crown courts, at the coroner, in the town council planning meetings etc etc. Doing a job the blogosphere cannot do. I'm not saying its great, or enough, but we'd be worse off without it.
A starving man might want a banquet but he'll settle for a sandwich.

Anonymous said...

Dan has a point - I was just taking a poke at two lazy journalists who can't even be bothered to precis the press release.

Alas we bloggers are parasitic to a greater or lesser extent on free news feeds - which are slowly bankrupting the press. We need a new model - but what ?

One concern is that a few megacorps - Murdoch and one or two others - may end up with a monopoly of news.

Dan said...

Thanks anon.

Like I say, I'm not in journalism any more, and I'm certainly not blind to its faults. But - just as a small 'for instance' - when I was a young reporter on a regional evening newspaper, on a number of occasions we successfully challenged reporting restrictions imposed by judges in crown court cases.

These were not earth shattering matters of national importance, but at least we challenged them (and were there in the first place to report them).

My old newspaper no longer has the staff to even cover crown court (which we did every day, only 15 to 20 years ago) and certainly wouldn't stump up the two or three grand it costs to get such restrictions overturned.

Bloggers are not covering court cases, or challenging restrictions, they are (generally - Dr Crippen is a good example of someone from the front line who is different) just commenting on news provided by the journalists.

I honestly don't know what the answer is - I've suggested before a council tax levy being used to fund local papers, though I can see the problems here obviously - but I do know that I don't want to live in a world where there is the BBC and nothing else.

Anonymous said...

Bloggers are not covering court cases, or challenging restrictions, they are (generally - Dr Crippen is a good example of someone from the front line who is different) just commenting on news provided by the journalists.

True, I dont what the solution is though.

Anonymous said...

Many on the left, maybe including Denham himself, have at various times claimed the solution to "racism" was ignorance. That ignorance would be combated by immigration, once knuckle dragging white racists were cheek to cheek with the vibrancy of Bagladeshi peasants and Somali gang bangers & pirates they would undergo an egalitarian epiphany.

Well, what happened Denham? You gave us the diversity but now you tell us racism has increased. Thats excatly the opposite of what was predicted. Any explanation for that at all?

Are there perhaps any other bold claims made for the benefits of mass immigration which have also failed to materlise, which have in fact had precisely the opposite effect to that promised?