Daubenmier: No.
Swanson: Are they nonetheless outside the realm of ideal journalistic performance.
Daubenmier: I would, no, I wouldn't think so at all. But, you know, they, Molly Ivins was basically a columnist, uh, and, you know, I think that's fine. I think she was great. But, um . . .
Swanson: But a reporter is something different.
Daubenmier: Yeah. I think a reporter still should be something different. But that doesn't mean a reporter can't be sort of crusading, you know, vigorous, and challenging, and . . . You know, I think it is awfully hard for reporters to have a point of view because they become so jaded and cynical by covering people all the time. You know, familiarity breeds contempt. And I think that's the occupational hazard of journalists, so I really don't think that part of the journalist, it's sort of a contradiction in terms because sooner or later they get disenchanted with the people they are covering no matter who they are. So I think what they need to be is willing to challenge those in authority, no matter what party they come from, and they should, you know, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The old Pulitzer model. That should be their goal, not promoting even necessarily one political point of view.
Swanson: The difficult thing to do impartially is decide which stories you are going to cover and which facts you are going to look into, and if you look at the more independent media outlets that are developing in this country and you look at the incredible explosion of great media criticism that is going on, it's all about the big stories that are in the corporate media. It's rarely, if ever, about the stories that don't exist in the corporate media and maybe should. So that, for example, if you were taking your lead on what stories to write about from opinion polls of what the majority of Americans were interested in, you might cover issues that are completely unheard of in the mainstream media. I mean, if someone were to look at the polls and see that a majority of Americans want Bush impeached and were to write an article about impeachment because there are rallies all over the country about it and nothing about it is happening in Congress, that article would be a partisan, opinionated, agenda article, even if it was written in straight journalese, straight, balanced, fact reporting style, whereas an article about, you know, exactly what benchmarks Nancy Pelosi wants George Bush to meet and so on, which nobody is talking about outside the beltway, would be an objective article.
Daubenmier: Well, no, I think that somebody could write that article objectively, or independently. I think that is a legitimate story. Why, why is there a disconnect between what the polls are saying, what the public is saying, and local activism, and what is happening in Congress regarding impeachment. I mean, that deserves to be inquired into. So, uh, I think that is a result of more sort of timidity in corporate media rather than a desire to be sort of neutral. Because they ask the question in the polls.
Swanson: So, well . .
Daubenmier: They're just not following up.
Swanson: Well, they don't. There are topics that they, that they don't ask about in polls and that's one that they almost never, not since October, you know, do they ask in polls and then only Newsweek and nobody else.
What you get from reading this book is a sense of hope and possibilities for the internet to force us to a better communication system, but it's hard to see the end results. Um, I mean, because we could conceive of, you know, surrendering to the fact that the television still gets the bulk of the eyeballs and put some real money into creating an honest and effective television network. Or are we looking at a future where blogs and video pieces on the internet merge and the web browser and the television set merge? Or is there an idea that, that the investigative reporting side of the blogs will build to such an extent that the other media have to take their lead from the blogosphere? I mean, what does the future look like that gets us to better, honest, democratic reporting?
Daubenmier: I think there is going to be a convergence of television and the internet in a lot of ways. As I understand it, with, the coming years we're going to see the ability of every web page to be sort of a broadcast television and radio station on its own, the technology of YouTube and similar uploading video capabilities is going to be so widely available that it's going to be easy to use your computer sort of like a television. And so that, I think that remains to be seen how that is going to play out. We are already seeing all the TV networks starting to put their video up on the web and that's the first step towards that. Um, as for more investigative reporting, I think it would be a shame to give up the infrastructure that newspapers have developed to do investigative reporting. They need to figure out a way to use the internet and to make money from the internet to replace those hard-copy subscribers that they are losing, because they do have expertise, they have sources, they've got historical memory that we need to take advantage of if we can get them to, sort of, you know, recover their vigor of a few years back. So, I think it's, it's uncertain. I think we are just about at the verge of a big change, and there's going to be more overlap between what TV looks like on the web, you know. The web is going to be more like TV, I think, in a lot of ways, but it will be more diverse. There won't just be three networks and a few cable stations. There will be a lot of people out there, and competition to attract viewers will be won by those who do the best job of meeting needs as far as good reporting.
Swanson: I know some media activists, particularly within the labor movement, who have been sort of screaming for years now that, you know, every election cycle the labor movement alone dumps enough money in the form of advertising into the existing networks that it could have built a new network, a new television network, and so they are constantly, you know, for years and years now, pounding the doors of the union presidents saying, "Why don't you come to your senses?" And I'm wondering if that idea is going to be perhaps outdated before the activists ever persuade the leadership to act on it. Do we perhaps, are we perhaps going to have better chances building through new converging technologies, as you mention?
Daubenmier: Yes, as long as we keep, you know, the internet free and open and we don't let Congress succumb to the pressure . . .
Swanson: Yes.
Daubenmier: . . of, you know, sort of internet access. Keep that open.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
