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Newsrooms infected by “complacency and condescension”
by Scott Gilbreath ~ November 18th, 2008
News mogul Rupert Murdoch says mainstream media are losing circulation and money because of contempt for readers.
Murdoch, whose company’s holdings also include MySpace and the Wall Street Journal, criticized what he described as a culture of “complacency and condescension” in some newsrooms.
“The complacency stems from having enjoyed a monopoly–and now finding they have to compete for an audience they once took for granted. The condescension that many show their readers is an even bigger problem. It takes no special genius to point out that if you are contemptuous of your customers, you are going to have a hard time getting them to buy your product. Newspapers are no exception.”
[…]
“A recent American study reported that many editors and reporters simply do not trust their readers to make good decisions. Let’s be clear about what this means. This is a polite way of saying that these editors and reporters think their readers are too stupid to think for themselves.”
Many reporters really do believe they are morally and intellectually superior to their readers. Blogging has potentially given everyone a public voice, and the j-school types can’t stand it.
h/t: small dead animals
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November 18th, 2008 at 05:23 PM
Although I can’t stand the liberal bias of the media, they are probably correct that the majority of the public is stupid. Comparing media from before about the early 1960s with media from today shows the stories today are mostly irrelevant and presented in a shallow manner.
This doesn’t just apply to liberal media, but also conservative media - for example, Murdoch’s own Fox News channel. On that channel there is too much emphasis on making the programs fast paced so there is not the opportunity to explore the issues in depth. (Note: I’m not biased against Fox News, I watch many programs such as O’Reilly and Huckabee as the alternatives in the liberal broadcast media are much worse).
If the public wasn’t stupid then the public would expect the quality of media to improve, and shows such as O’Reilly, rather than being one of the best quality news commentary shows would be run-of-the-mill