[MidWest]

I took a journalism class and I can't help but be interested in journalism. People seem to forget how important news and journalism is to society. Nowadays many journalists get very cozy with those in power and are all about the access and are too afraid to ask tough questions in fear of not getting access to those at the top.

A journalist's job is to challenge those in power and ask the tough questions and be a dick if you have to in order to get the answer you want. Journalists are supposed to make those in power uncomfortable and keep their distance from power. Nowadays I see the opposite where journalists cup-cake with those in power. Is journalism dead?

Even though the majority are all about access, there are many out there who keep it real for the profession. Who is your favorite journalist and what is your favorite journalistic moment and why?


Here are mying:


Anderson Cooper

^^^^^One of my favorite journalists. Anderson Cooper is truly a champion of "keeping them honest" he always tries his best to get people who seem like they are lying to bring forth the truth. Here he is basically making Donald Sterling show himself up on national television to be what he is believed to be, which is a racist.


Jorge Ramos:

^^^^My favorite journalist of all time. Jorge Ramos is not afraid to ask the tough questions and call politicians out when they contradict themselves. A true champion of journalism for his time, probably one of the greatest we have. Here President Obama goes on to Univision to talk to the Hispanic community in 2012 during the campaign. Obama walks into the set being cocky, waving to the crowd and thought he had Hispanics in the bag, but was met with a bombardment of tough questions by Jorge Ramos from immigration to Benghazi to Fast and Furious to the economy. It was the first time since being president where Obama was asked legit questions about his performance. This 50 second clip was basically Jorge Ramos calling Obama out on his broken promise that he was going to pass immigration reform in his first year and basically told him "why did you lie to us?" Jorge Ramos really took it to him making it uncomfortable for him. Best interview Ive seen ever. Truly a beauty. Its an hour long if anybody is interested. This interview was so shocking that even Rush Limbaugh clapped his hand for Jorge Ramos.
This guy's reaction to that interview was funny:

Jorge Ramos and John Boehner

^^^^ Jorge Ramos again which will go down in one of the best moments in journalism. Calling out John Boehner about immigration and why he's blocking the bill. Jorge knows that the Republicans don't want to vote on immigration and that's exactly the answer he's looking for. Boehner doesn't know what hit him hahaha, notice the other journalists around him looking at him.


BBC

^^^^^BBC usually keeps it real. This British journalist is also great. Don't know his name but this interview with Hugo Chavez is great.

[El Chinito loco]

(10-04-2014 05:01 AM)MidWest Wrote:  

Anderson Cooper

^^^^^One of my favorite journalists. Anderson Cooper is truly a champion of "keeping them honest" he always tries his best to get people who seem like they are lying to bring forth the truth. Here he is basically making Donald Sterling show himself up on national television to be what he is believed to be, which is a racist.

The fag son of an elite family is your example of superior journalism. Really? Let's not even consider his background for a moment. The whole Donald Sterling thing was just tabloid chasing journalism. Cooper was diving headlong into it to boost his own profile.

Sterling is no more a racist than anyone else. He's a mentally decrepit old billionare who got worked over by his fuck toy. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Foolsgo1d]

I value quality journalism. Indepth, informed and non-biased news is crucial in this day and age as it can lead to real world change and eye-opening events.

These events are too numerous to count.

However the quality of journalism has slipped for the majority of news outlets. Whereas there were days the likes of FOX News were gospel to many that has now changed due to the internet.

But with the internet has come click bait. It is the same animal as what the News of the World or any trashy tabloid newspaper did before the WWW. Eyes on the front page to grab more money. The polite thing to do is read it after you bought it.

Advertisements drive journalism for the most part. Its why war and murder have always been popular topics to push.

[bacan]

Glenn greenwald

[Sp5]

(10-04-2014 08:33 AM)bacan Wrote:  

Glenn greenwald

The difference between a journalist and a courtier:

I add Matt Taibbi.

[The Beast1]

Journalism is dead in this country. The last great journalist was Bob Woodward. Everyone else after that has been pandering to corporate elites.

I would love to start a TV network that has a red pill blasting muck racking news outlet. I betcha progresso outrage would bring in a lot of viewers and ad dollars. Think, RoK on TV with more cutting questions to elites and those in power.

[Laurifer]

Journalism is dead. The few true journalists that are left have had their profession tainted by 24 hour news networks and all the young 20-something hipsters calling themselves journalists that produce the garbage on gawker and elite daily.

This my friends, is what true journalism looks like. An absolutely amazing report right after the Khmer Rouge had just pulled out of Phnom Penh. Journalism at its finest:

[Sombro]

Mainstream journalists and their networks are all horribly biased, including CNN, BBC, et. al. Before the internet, they could all get away with it, but now it's amazing how they can say one thing and the next day you can read their stories being ripped apart online (especially with columnists like Paul Krugman, it's a sport).
I actually went to J-school and the shit I see on TV makes me shake my head.


I try to follow independent journalists and first-hand accounts when possible.
Michael Totten is one. He was just some guy from Oregon with a blog until WSJ ran one of his columns. Ever since, he's been writing from the mideast, Balkans, Cuba, Vietnam, etc. Excellent, in-depth reporting. Check it out.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blogs...l-j-totten

[Basil Ransom]

I like adversarial journalists. There's no facade of neutrality and impartiality, so people will naturally not immediately accept what they have to say.

Matt Taibi, Glenn Greenwald, Michael Hastings (deceased).

Most journalists are frauds who will shy away from reporting the truth if it conflicts with their beliefs. They're also raging narcissists whose premiere motive is to build up their self-image as a big time journalist - and not to get the story right and reveal the truth. They have no subject specific expertise.

Every time there is a mass shooting, it's evident that most of the reporters don't know anything about guns, and don't even try to cover how the shooting occurred logistically speaking.

[svenski7]

Anderson Cooper?

[Emancipator]

(10-04-2014 05:09 AM)El Chinito loco Wrote:  

(10-04-2014 05:01 AM)MidWest Wrote:  

Anderson Cooper

^^^^^One of my favorite journalists. Anderson Cooper is truly a champion of "keeping them honest" he always tries his best to get people who seem like they are lying to bring forth the truth. Here he is basically making Donald Sterling show himself up on national television to be what he is believed to be, which is a racist.

The fag son of an elite family is your example of superior journalism. Really? Let's not even consider his background for a moment. The whole Donald Sterling thing was just tabloid chasing journalism. Cooper was diving headlong into it to boost his own profile.

Sterling is no more a racist than anyone else. He's a mentally decrepit old billionare who got worked over by his fuck toy. Nothing more, nothing less.

Not to mention the huge fuss Cooper made over Reddit's Jailbait sub.

[Yeti]

I also recommend Matt Taibbi, though he has had some blemishes (he seems like a bit of a dick). His former comrade Mark Ames as well is great.

They wrote The Exile together, one of the truly great books that I have read in the past few years (about their journalism escapades in post-communism Moscow).

Matt Taibbi wrote Griftopia, the best explanation of the causes of the 2008 recession that I have found.

As a whole, I don't even bother with following journalists. The BBC, far from perfect, is nonetheless good enough to understand things on a general level. Julian Rowlatt wrote his columns on conservation-minded living, called The Ethical Man, which were awesome though I don't think that he asked any politicians the tough questions that OP had in mind. I think that he's based in Angola, now.

Even Moot, founder of 4chan and for so long one to uphold freedom of expression, caved in recently to censorship. The world has changed, it seems.

[MidWest]

haha, come on, where's the love for Cooper?

I don't care if he came from an elite family or if he's a "fag", every time I see him interview someone he almost always takes it to the person and keeps them honest with facts.

^^^^ he's basically asking them for evidence and the people on the show just yell back.

A journalist who can get an interviewee get mad and yell is doing their job.

[TigerMandingo]

Taibbi, Greenwald, Seymour Hersh (very underrated) and F. William Engdahl, who authored The Gods of Money about Wall St and is always digging deep into stories.

Guys like Cooper, Larry King, Wolf Blitzer, etc. are regurgitators of received information. Their job is to appear adversarial while conforming to establishment views. Not to mention the fact that most journalists in the MSM are buddies and acquaintances with the same politicians, statesmen that they claim to "investigate".

If journalism students actually look up to people like Cooper, then journalism really is dead.

[NilNisiOptimum]

Woodward and Bernstein were last examples of journalists actually getting results. Has anyone come close to that since? Obama has done magnitudes worse that Watergate, and all anyone wants to do these days is talk about something else that gets warm fuzzies.

[Yeti]

I think that my problem with Andersoon Cooper is that he basically sticks to the mainstream message.

As far as I know, there's no questioning of why things are so fucked up. Only about topics of the day that we'll forget about tomorrow.

He may hit heavy but it's about things that don't really matter in the long run. He's blue pill.

[MidWest]

Then again we have Bill O Reily who gets mad and calls people liars, haha.

[Days of Broken Arrows]

People complained about TV news once (see the movie "Broadcast News" from 1986).

But old-style television news looks positively brilliant when placed beside the ridiculous print and video clickbait journalists churn out today. This is the main reason I left the field. If every article has to be outrageous! scandalous! than you're not writing. You're attention-whoring.

I saw the same thing happening with pop music, which I used to write about, by the way. Viral video used to be a way to get a song out. Now people write songs as the afterthought/ soundtrack to a video concept -- the perfect example being the Jennifer Lopez/Iggy Azelea study in self-love "Booty."

In both cases, the message bends itself to the medium. And in both cases, the message has degenerated into "look at me!"

In the old days, this was the last thing you'd want to say as a journalist. I have vivid memories of editors tearing up the work of writers saying "You made yourself the story!" Now they ask for that.

Information -- and even entertainment -- now take a backseat to the cult of personality. News, politics, and entertainment are blending into one big gossip-centered reality show.

Some of the journalists mentioned here -- particularly Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald -- do excellent work. But most of the rest are basically a parody of what journalism is -- and, as mentioned, it's all been taken to a new low by the crowds at Buzzfeed and Gawker (the latter of whom hated me, I'm now proud to say).

I don't see it getting better anytime soon either.

[scorpion]

This thread almost reads like a parody.

"I'm taking Journalism 101 and my teacher told me that only journalists can defend truth and justice in a free society! Who is your guys' favoritest? Mine is Anderson Cooper this guy is sooo cool and smart!"

The reality is that Anderson Cooper is not engaging in journalism, he's engaging in journalism theater. He's not there to speak truth to power, he's there to play the role of a journalist to the credulous masses who can't tell the difference.

Looks like he's doing a good job.

[Soma]

(10-04-2014 03:49 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  

In both cases, the message bends itself to the medium. And in both cases, the message has degenerated into "look at me!"

Should be familiar to all our Canook members:

Marshall McLuhan - The Medium is the Message (1961)
(couldn't embed video)

From Wikipedia:

Wikipedia Wrote:

"The medium is the message" is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.
...
McLuhan proposes that a medium itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study. He said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself.

[MidWest]

(10-04-2014 04:58 PM)scorpion Wrote:  

This thread almost reads like a parody.

"I'm taking Journalism 101 and my teacher told me that only journalists can defend truth and justice in a free society! Who is your guys' favoritest? Mine is Anderson Cooper this guy is sooo cool and smart!"

The reality is that Anderson Cooper is not engaging in journalism, he's engaging in journalism theater. He's not there to speak truth to power, he's there to play the role of a journalist to the credulous masses who can't tell the difference.

Looks like he's doing a good job.

Easy there buddy! No parody here, just honest opinions on certain journalists that's all. True, journalists are not only the ones who defend the truth in a free society, but they have an obligation and a responsibility to bring people the truth and news. In many countries around the world, journalists are sometimes shot, hanged, banned or censored if they go against the status-quo or criticize a dictator.

I disagree on Anderson Cooper. I just feel people tend to side with one particular party and want to hear the talking point of a journalist who is right-wing and not hear the talking point of the journalist who is left-wing and vice-versa. Anderson Cooper gets a lot of haters, he must be doing something right.

[AnonymousBosch]

(10-04-2014 03:49 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  

I saw the same thing happening with pop music, which I used to write about, by the way.

Music journalism and criticism is dead.

I started a heavily-stylised music project on the side with an American Mate that turned out to be better than what I'd been trying to do with a band, because people's ears are pricking up in a big way. We had a long conversation about physically-releasing it along the lines of "I know this is great. You know this is great. Do we need an audience to tell us it is great?" and "Given the current state of music journalism, who can understand where we're coming from with this, let alone offer us any insightful, worthwhile criticism about it?"

His attitude in the end was 'Society doesn't deserve us, fuck it!'

But the point seemed valid. Where is the actual music criticism today beyond 'sounds a bit like X' or 'female empowerment!', because I read a lot of music writing, and no-one in gamergate seems to have noticed the SJW's are infesting that field too, and it's degenerating into a criticism of 'troubling' ideas fucking everwhere.

Here's some highlights from a recent review of Maroon 5's new album that illustrate what I mean. I don't like the band - much preferred their power pop Kara's Flowers incarnation back in the 90's, but, seriously, look at this prissy, moral scolding overreaction to innocuous pop lyrics. How does this guy function in modern society?

Quote:

How about “Animals,” a gross promotion of rape culture that uses another slickly produced Levine vocal hook to mask the highly problematic nature of a line like “Baby I’m praying on you tonight/Hunt you down eat you alive”?

Quote:

I don’t hate it just because it’s a complete mismatch with my music tastes, or even because the lyrics and grating melodies are absolutely laughable; I hate it because it’s openly offensive, sexist shit.

Quote:

Nearly every song on this record is misogynistic in some regard, from the obvious predatory ramblings of “Animals” to the Robin Thicke-level douchebaggery of “Feelings.” “If you want me take me home and let me use you,” Levine croons on the latter, as if telling a girl you’d like to disrespect and rape her somehow works as a romantic pick-up line. “Sugar” is nearly as bad, with lyrics that compare a girl to—you guessed it—sugar, before rhyming “My broken pieces you pick them up” with “Don’t leave me hanging, come give me some.” On “Coming Back for You,” he sounds like an attempted murderer promising to finish the job: “Doesn’t really matter what you do/I’ll be back for you, coming back for you.” And on “New Love,” he informs a first date, “I can tell that you need my love and all I want is to give it to you” before ordering her to deal with his lying, cheating, and philandering: “If I ever let you down, forgive me!/Would it kill you to forgive me?”

Quote:

The fact that this album is more or less a collection of sexual harassment catchphrases that you might hear on the streets of a college town after dark is alarming enough as is. Coming from the guy who once sang “It’s not always rainbows and butterflies/It’s compromise that moves us along,” it’s an even bigger cause for concern. In the past 12 years, Adam Levine has regressed from a promising young songwriter who was surprisingly mature and insightful for his age, to a guy who—in his songs, at least—stalks young women and treats them like objects. The fact that the songs where all of this happens were co-written by more than a dozen music industry A-listers underlines the troubling misogyny and sexism that has run rampant in modern pop music.

The reviewer:



The site name? AbsolutePunk.



I'm convinced Millennials will eradicate sex within their own generation within the next 10 years.

[Tytalus]

I'm a fan of Mark Steyn - steynonline.com Maybe more of a pundit than Journalist. Still, I enjoy his commentary.

[Hedonistic Traveler]

(10-04-2014 05:54 PM)AnonymousBosch Wrote:  

Quote:

How about “Animals,” a gross promotion of rape culture that uses another slickly produced Levine vocal hook to mask the highly problematic nature of a line like “Baby I’m praying on you tonight/Hunt you down eat you alive”?

I'm convinced Millennials will eradicate sex within their own generation within the next 10 years.

Everything is highly problematic with these people, it's such a cop-out. I wonder if they realize how ridiculous they sound, they're like a herd of sheep. Saying something is problematic is just a way of being critical without having to think. At least before they had to decide if it was sexist, racist, or both. Now they just throw it under a single catch-all to save time.

And they won't eradicate sex, they'll just set it up so that 10% of the guys get all the sex. Going to be a lot of disappointed 30-year olds in the next 5-15 years.

Also why would anyone write a album criticism for Maroon 5. Is there that much to interpret beyond the painfully obvious lyrics?

[AnonymousBosch]

One of the first I remember from a couple of years ago. Like Gaming, they crept in slowly, and now it's everywhere, to the extent I've missed a bunch of new releases this year from artists I like because I don't bother reading the sites any more.

Quote:

Lesbian Propaganda & Other Myths: Misogyny In Dance Music

Angus Finlayson examines a disturbing trend towards misogyny in dance music circles, and contrasts that current shift with the promises of equality ushered in by the genesis of house music and the early days of rave.

At the end:

Quote:

PLEASE NOTE: we've had to turn off the comments in this piece as for some reason they were crashing the page.

"They were crashing the page".