A citizen journalist is an effort to claim status for folk who are not being paid to report. If you are not being paid, and not subject to a publication which pays, you have no claim to be a journalist. Well, you can claim it but claiming does not make it so. If you are a citizen journalist not being paid and you think you are good enough, apply to a place that pays. Otherwise join those enough who are not citizen journalists and are not doing real journalism and either blog away for free with no expectation of financial regard. Or monetize your site in some way.This is in reaction to ay Rosen's extensive post on Mayhill Fowler and all the HuffPost OffThe Bus background which is interesting if you have the time to read it but is otherwise not very helpful in justifying anything.
The fact of the matter is that HuffPost is where the buck stops on applying some ethics to the quasi-journalism that comes from its unpaid writers.
The entire setup is not enticing -- at least to me. I have been paid all my life to write, much of that time as a journalist. Journalism is difficult, the very opposite of writing a rambling piece which quotes material that was meant to be off the record.
This was shabby, without any reference to the effect which if may have had or will have on things.
So was the way the monster quote lady in Scotland -- a professional -- helped sink a valued counselor to Barack.
HuffPost's head was off on a cruise when this was going on. I know little about Jay Rosen, but I have been around the Web long enough to realize that established publications who purport to be reporting the news have a leg up on citizen journalism. a flossy term for a venture capital operation that has managed to get hard work for free from thousands of aspirants. Or off the cuff and mediocre material from people who are known who want a popular platform.
Money is running HuffPost. Their choice not to pay writers is an insult.
It puts their willing subjects in the obvious position of needing to find little opportunities to blow up big stories.
Maybe someone will now offer Mayhill a job if she wants it.
Rosen writes:
Citizen journalism isn't a hypothetical in this campaign. It's not a beach ball for newsroom curmudgeons, either. It's Mayhill Fowler, who had been in Pennsylvania with Obama, listening to the candidate talk about Pennsylvanians to supporters in San Francisco, and hearing something that didn't sound right to her
As far as I am concerned, it is a question. Do we credit the ethics of an operation that is wanting to fly economically and will not pay their writers? Nothing that I read in Rosen's piece suggests that anything close to the expectations of a professional news operation were applied to Mayhill by the HuffPost folk.
And why should they? This is the Internet after all.
And Rosen asks why Meet The Press airbrushed Mayhill out. Because they rightly did not want to play her up and give credence to a category of citizen journalist. I say good for them.
The final issue is that only the HuffPost's "prestige" could have given this story legs. I have consistently sensed that HuffPost is unreliable at the point of being a professional news operation.
Nothing that Rosen says alters this impression.
http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com
Born in NYC, attended Oberlin & Trinity Schools, then Exeter and Williams (Phi Beta Kappa 1958). Worked with the Reverend James Robinson, finished Union Theological Seminary in NYC (1961). Joined Student Interracial Ministry in Nashville. Founded Renewal Magazine in Chicago, served The Christian Century and Christianity Crisis magazines. Covered civil rights in Oxford, Birmingham and Selma. Interviewed Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X. My book The Grass Roots Church had impact on the ecumenical movement. Have authored some 15 books, been a house-husband and father of three wonderful (grown) children. I have written published music choral and popular. Most recently I served in UN agencies including UNICEF in NYC and edited CHOICES which was the flagship magazine of UNDP.
Perhaps you mentioned it, but I don't believe that getting paid makes one a professional. We have plenty of paid professionals today who couldn't write a news story if someone went out and did all the work for them. I agree that investigative journalism is difficult, as is covering the windbags and bloviators who populate most levels of our political system. I don't wish to defend the Huffington Post, but let's at least be honest. No blog or purported Online Newspaper (as HuffPo touts itself) could give the "bitter" story legs. That took the craven miscreants who pass for news reporters, cable and network news anchors, journalists, and the editors, publishers, and corporate sponsors to whom they all answer.
The reason we have so many American citizen reporters today reflects the devastating loss of accountability at all levels of government and those who report on government corruption. Obama speaks the truth, albeit with ill-chosen language, which then becomes a hurrumph-fest by the sanctimonious wheedlers of balderdash. At the same time, the president gives them a gift horse more loaded than the wooden one the Greeks left at Troy (my national security team recommended torture and I approved it - can anyone say war crime?), and nary a peep from the nattering nabobs of palaver.
Hunter S. Thompson was as fine a journalist (even as stoned as he could be sometimes) as I have read, and even he couldn't stomach what he saw on the horizon. So please, go sanctify H.L. Menken (and I'll be right with you) if you like, but there are few paid journalists writing today who deserve a pay check. As for the hairdos and legs on television, why don't we simply pull the plug. We'll all be much better off.
by
brian edwards (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments)
on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 10:42:52 PM
I agree in some respects. My bottom lines on this are that HuffPPost was deficient and that regardless of the talent or quality of the work news organizations do pay. There is a professional track -- but of course anyone can call themself a journalist. I hope when Barack gets in one result will be a decent news channel.
by
Stephen C. Rose (35 articles, 64 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 56 comments)
on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 6:47:22 AM
i'll take citizens over the corporate media any day
i give hundreds of dollars a year to indy media and advocacy orgs, but i'll never spend another cent on fascist rags like the NY Times and WaPo. I surf the TV news to monitor the lies and spin, but I always change the channel when their sponsors come on.
Brian Edwards is right, the corporate media brought this story into the mainstream, as only they can do- and are attempting to bury the torture memo story, as only they can do.
check out the fundraising stats of the "top tier" garbage at OpenSecrets.org and WhiteHouseForSale.org ; this says a lot more about their true interests and priorities than any words coming out of either side of their faces.
by
Better World Order (4 articles, 432 quicklinks, 28 diaries, 925 comments)
on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 11:20:10 PM
3 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
