Why Do We Suck? and Other Questions Political Journalists Asked: "My readers know more than I do."

[DeepModem Mom]

Huffington Post: Jay Rosen
Why Do We Suck? and Other Questions Political Journalists Asked Themselves at YearlyKos
Posted August 6, 2007

I've been reviewing the press coverage, blogging and video from the Yearly Kos conference in Chicago, trying to make sense of what happened between the press and the liberal blogosphere at this event. My main conclusion: more respect expressed for the blogosphere, and a little less wariness between the two groups. (But let's not overstate it.)

The AP's political editor, Ron Fournier, talked to TPM Media's Andrew Golis about some of the reasons. "I'm a proud member of the mainstream media," he said. "But I also love coming to events like this and finding that I am treated very respectfully and I learn a lot from these folks." --

"These are people who for the first 20 years of my career read my stuff, and complained about it, and wanted to add things to it, and wanted to be a part of it, and never could because there was this big wall between me and them. Now, you know, I hear about it as soon as I push the button on a story. I'm getting emails and being blasted on blogs and sometimes--quite often--I will read something on a blog that will be a good point, something I'll add to the story or try to learn from."

Fournier has discovered that Dan Gillmor was right back in 2000: "My readers know more than I do." Gillmor, who reported on Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, was the first mainstream newspaper journalist to have a blog. Compare what Fournier said in '07 to what Gillmor told J.D. Lasica in 2001. "I frequently hear from readers after a column, saying, 'That was interesting, but have you thought about this or that angle?,' and often the answer is no, I hadn't, so the next time I return to the subject the missing piece makes its way into the article."

Essentially the same quote. So it took five or six years, but the rest of the press is catching up to Gillmor's insight, which arose from his experience with the two-way nature of blogging. "I doubt there is a beat at any newspaper or publication or program where it is not the case that the readers collectively know more than the reporter," he told Lasica....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/why-do-we-suck-and-other_b_59252.html

[Amonester]

1. Peace is war, freedom is slavery, democracy is tyrrany, up is down.

Readers know more than reporters.

Wake up, and never forget?

[gratuitous]

2. No, you don't necessarily suck . . .

And a tip for us readers: Reporters, despite the tone of the stories they file, aren't omniscient seers of all situations everywhere. Sometimes they go to print with incomplete information, sometimes they file a story heavily influenced by the last source they consulted. And if their last source is a crackpot, the story can be screamingly wrong. Unless the reporter's name is John Solomon, it's probably safe to assume that they just made an error, and you should address the reporter's story in the same spirit you'd like to be approached if you had made an error. Notice what the reporter himself said is a locution that enters his mind: "Have you thought about this or that angle?" which probably gets a lot more traction than "You suck!"

And yes, a community of minds does know more than any one person could possibly know. For example, I don't know diddly squat about military tactics, techniques, protocols or procedures. I'm not a fan of the military, and certainly am very much against its pervasive, pernicious influence throughout our culture, which is more and more heavily reliant on the Myth of Redemptive Violence (the idea that any problem can be solved with the application of sufficient violence). But I read a lot of threads having to do with what our tax dollars are paying for in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I know that if I were to write a column about the military, I'd make real sure I checked the facts over with more than one DUer with military experience.

Reporters, however, are often on deadline, and like the rest of us humans, are reluctant to talk to folks they aren't familiar with or not comfortable with. It's up to us to make sure that they're at the very least familiar with liberal and progressive thought (rather than the caricatures indulged by the repressive right), even if they're not comfortable with us. A lot of reporters are in their 20s and 30s, and have no living memory whatsoever of a time when Republicans weren't in the ascendance. We can be part of their ongoing education.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Thanks for this post, gratuitous! nt

[Clark2008]

4. True, but having worked the Clark campaign in 2004, I know

for a fact that Fournier couldn't seem to get facts straight about the popularity of that candidate - none of the media grasped it even after Clark beat Edwards in five of the nine races in which they both competed. We still only heard about Edwards.

And, I was a reporter for 12 years, as well.

I got to see both sides. It wasn't pretty.