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"CEO said a thing!" journalism involves parroting the claims of a business leader or executive with absolutely no context, correction, or challenge whatsoever, no matter how elaborate the delusion (karlbode.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/technology@beehaw.org
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[–] 7 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Have you ever read newspapers from the 19th or 18th centuries? Cause I have bad news for you about the history of journalism.

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  • [–] 13 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

    Sure, stipulated, but in fact I'd say the more relevant analogy to today's situation is 1930s Germany and Goebbels (along with radio). To my mind journalism mostly evolved into profession post WW2 as a reaction to the prior corruption of reporting.

    For a period there it had a strong code of ethics (professional ethics even) and served society well before concentration of media in the hands of corrupt oligarchs (e.g. Murdoch) destroyed any competition on truth (when's the last time you heard of a scoop?) and then the internet and especially social media drove home the nails.

    This is not to say that there is not true journalism still alive, but that it is far removed from the majority of society, hard to find. It needs to be sought out, ironically in an age where information flows so freely, quality is lost in the slop (even before AI). It would behoove us as a society to raise it once more from the muck, wish I knew how.

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  • [–] 10 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

    There has always been true journalists, and it seems there are periods where groups become more prominent in waves, like you describe with that period, but, at least from the many news papers I have read from that time, from the US, Canada, and the UK it was all corporate voice, and extremely ham fisted government propaganda, and that portion of journalism seems to be outlier. Newspapers needs sales, Ads need viewer, etc., and sensationalist bullshit, outrage, and gossip, have always been the solution to that.

    I can't tell you how many ads I have seen for over consumption, especially of questionable shit, with the US government calling for being a real American, or whatever, that buys this American product. Write-ups about military actions, especially ones with natives, that are basically just fabricated stories about brave christian soldiers protecting innocent homesteaders from the savages. When I first started looking these up I was kinda surprised at how bad it was actually, and I was expecting pretty much the same. The biggest thing I noticed was that there was a LOT more long form article 200 years ago. However they, like today, were largely industry/political puff pieces, socialite blather, etc.

    Also, the amount of casual libel in century plus old news papers is insane. Absolutely would not fly today.

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