I am one of the approximately 89 people in America still willing to purchase the paper version of a magazine.
I repeat: I am one of the approximately 89 people in America still willing to purchase the paper version of a magazine.
Saturday, on a whim after seeing Scott’s post on the class blog, that’s just what I did when I paid $5.99 to read a magazine feature article not on my laptop screen. Yes, I may be extremely stupid. Yes, I am aware of the ‘internet.’
How to fix journalism: don't try to fix journalism
And yes, I enjoyed Mark Bowden’s take on hyperpartisan media battles of late and perhaps, so will you. Here’s why.
A 2007 Atlantic cover story boasted “How To Fix The World.” I didn’t know that 5 minutes ago, but thanks to Google image search, I do now, and thanks to this random blog, so do you. Such is the viral, exhilarating and somewhat creepy complexion of the internet.
It was the internet, claims Bowden in the originally mentioned piece, that cryptically provided all the major news networks with their allegedly identical initial selected soundbites of Supreme Court nominee Sonja Sotomayor. Bowden writes:
Who, after all, is willing to work for free? Morgen Richmond, for one—the man who actually found the snippets used to attack Sotomayor. He is a partner in a computer-consulting business in Orange County, California, a father of two, and a native of Canada, who defines himself, in part, as a political conservative. He spends some of his time most nights in a second-floor bedroom/office in his home, after his children and wife have gone to bed, cruising the Internet looking for ideas and information for his blogging. “It’s more of a hobby than anything else,” he says. His primary outlet is a Web site called VerumSerum.com, which was co-founded by his friend John Sexton.
Bowden goes on to analyze why he thinks sites like VerumSerum are reflective of what he expertly terms a climate of “political hit men:”
In this post-journalistic world, the model for all national debate becomes the trial, where adversaries face off, representing opposing points of view. We accept the harshness of this process because the consequences in a courtroom are so stark; trials are about assigning guilt or responsibility for harm.
As a co-captain of the university’s mock trial team, I especially enjoyed and was able to relate to this analogy of Bowden’s. More importantly, it perfectly hammers in the point I was trying to make during our in-class discussions last week: in true viral nature, journalism has become inseperably infected with the partisan nature of the general public.
Bowden’s analysis of VerumSerum’s writers was far from viper-like in criticism. Still, at least one of the VerumSerum writers, in responding to the article on their site, had characterized Bowden as someone who “practices what he preaches” to some extent. A long entry was posted wishing to clear up misconceptions, however. It’s worth a read if you want another take on Bowden’s views. One interesting bit from VerumSerum’s response post #2:
In his article, Bowden describes me and my co-blogger John as “as part-time, or aspiring, journalists”. I can’t answer for John, but I believe my own response to Bowden’s question on this was to laugh, and say something to the effect that I am probably the definition of an amateur, couch journalist. The truth is that I’m a co-owner of a pretty successful business, and I really don’t aspire to a career in journalism. In fact, I only started blogging within the past 6 months and I’m not even sure I aspire to a career as a non-professional blogger.
As I told Bowden, the reason I got into blogging was to make a difference in the national debate over issues I care deeply about.
Bingo. “Issues I care deeply about.” Game, set , match.
At the same time, Bowden is just as removed from objectivity as his subjects, in my opinion.
Sure, VerumSerum’s writers post their blog entries under a header showing graphics of biblical characters, but let’s keep it real, Bowden writes for The Atlantic, a magazine whose cover story is still bitching randomly about George Bush and will probably bitch about george Bush until the end of time.
Verdict: Journalism’s hyperpartisan atmophere-if you’re even on the boat in calling it “journalism’s”-can’t be fixed by some noble intervention, some brilliant tweet or some random minute blog. Like a child who eats way too much Halloween candy, journalism will eventually right itself once it realizes it ate too much crap and pukes. Or dies.
