What the hell happened to Journalism?

I have been bitching about this for a while. Now its time for a pit thread. This may mean nothing to you, but I think it is big problem.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/motorsports/two-florida-men-remembered-after-deaths-at-talladega/ar-BBsDDX4?li=BBnb7Kz

Who, what, when, where, why and how. Is that so hard?

Maybe it is. But how did this get passed * an editor? Are we hiring reporters out of grade school now? Even as a first draft, this would be crap!

The first paragraph is about the city’s press statement! The first victim named in the 2nd paragraph, the other in the fourth? I guess one life was more important that the other. “Oh, and old guy also died.”

[sub] past\passed, I always get them confused [/sub]

Heh. Newsflash: The City of Tallahassee released a statement Tuesday.

Extra points for the crappy photo that has next to nothing to do with the story.

Why am I not surprised there’s a FOX logo on the linked page?

I’m guessing moonlighting blogger, paid a pittance if at all, which to them would be marginally better than the big fat nothing they get paid to be a blogger.

Journalism is dead. It’s popped its clogs, bought the farm, gone tits up, food for the worms. I’m saying it’s a deceased equine.

I worry about the death of journalism as much as I worry about the death of endangered species. The loss of either decrease the quality of life on this planet, and we can’t do much about either one.

No one cares! And by the time people figure out that they SHOULD care, it will be too late. Welcome to the future, millennials.

Preach it bother!

I read the Washington Post daily, a premier News Paper.

And half the time rather than telling you the news they decide to start with a little story.
Thisis the perfect example:
**Headline: ** Betrayed’: Vegans revolt against owners of famous L.A. vegan restaurants after meat eating outed

But you don’t actually hear anything about the controversy until the 7th paragraph. I don’t want to ready about how wonderful of a family farm they are I want to know what the Vegans are complaining about.

I’m sure that they are popular and meant to draw the reader in like a novel, but I find them frustrating, when I actually am interested in the news.

The smart people are starting to retire.

There’s a reason it used to be called “Grammar School”.

Press 1 to continue in English…

But, we can make more!

I call this the “New Times” school of journalism, after the free weekly. Start the article with a teaser - “the murder of Joe Smith was a tragedy that shocked this small town”. Then, go into three pages describing the history of the small town, the history of the victim, the history of anything related, until finally you get to the actual story. Which often isn’t actually that “shocking”, or even “interesting.”

Arrrgh! I HATE that.

You are a reporter, not a novelist! Report, durn you!

What happened to journalism?

H. L. Mencken died.

What happened to journalism?

Have you been paying attention the last 2 decades?

Entering “What the hell happened to Journalism?” into google returns 19,000,000 results.

But you’ll be happy to know that this thread is the top result! At least for me…bound to be some cookie/relevancy shenanigans going on.

I simply cannot resist this Mencken quote:

“One some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

-Topical?

Dated. That already happened; 2000-2008

Hey! Fact-check!

He lived in the White House from January 20th, 2001 to January 19th, 2009.

Curse you, straight dope nitpickery!

What happened to Journalism?

Last I heard it was sucking festering cocks in a back alley to feed its crack addiction.

What happened to journalism?

“Content wants to be free.” Translation: I used to have to pay for a newspaper, or (through commercials or channel subscription) for TV news. Then came the internet, and I didn’t have to pay any more. The only problem is, you get what you pay for, and if you want to read free blogs instead of paid news, you get crap. If a newspaper gives its online content away for free, either the site is completely choked with ads, or else the content is crap; or both. Because fewer and fewer people can tell the difference. (Or, like NPR, they get their money elsewhere.)

Journalism was something that many people went into out of idealism, but they still needed to make a living wage. Hard to make a living wage when no-one wants to pay for your content.

My home page is news.google

Google stated, years ago that it would NEVER pay for content.

The starting point for “If it’s online, it MUST be free”.

You MAY get what you pay for, but you will rarely get more then you pay for.

The BBC World page is of value

Ha! I saw this today. But, I don’t think a lot of the click bait target demographic reads novels.

Wait, Joe Smith, the former #1 NBA draft pick from the University of Maryland? He was from a small town in VA, IIRC. Readers of the Washington Post Sports pages 20-some years ago will know whom I’m talking about.

I remember right before aol killed it off netscape closed all its news divisions down and decided to let the news bloggers and websites do its news coverage… people said things would go to hell after that and everyone would do it

sad to say after ms stupidly let go of msnbc msn did the same although they do their news reader digest style but they don’t proofread anything … you see someone pointing out how bad the writing and yelling at msn only to have others say "read the logo on the side they wrote it "

I think tho these days everything’s written as human interest stories and not news …

Hell after reading the facebook linked comments (which made it easier to comment and not really better ) its morons writing for bigger morons these days

How does that job pay? Can I be paid for being a moran* posting on a “legimate”** news website?

Salary estimates, please.

  • great hand-held sign

**What? Does spelling count in this New Journalism?

Are you kidding? Journalism has always had its sleazy side – ever heard of “yellow journalism?” Hearst and Pulitzer pretty much set the standard for that.