The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Professor Reynolds and Journalism

Posted on | May 1, 2011 | 10 Comments

One of my pet peeves is when people criticize “journalists” when what they actually mean to criticize are “people on TV.” It is the latter category of TV news that so often inspires contempt for “the media” — an attitude I generally share, except for the fact that I’ve been a professional journalist for 25 years, having begun my newspaper career at a 6,000-circulation Georgia weekly in 1986. And at the 4:55 mark of this video interview with Bill Whittle, Professor Glenn Reynolds says “people who are journalists mostly know how to get their mugs on camera,” and speaks of complaints from people who “can’t stand looking at the TV anymore . . . the same talking heads saying the same stuff”:

(Via The Lonely Conservative and American Power.) Why do the idiotic TV performances of talking heads justify a generalized hatred of all reporters? I’ve had this argument with Melissa Clouthier before. Criticizing media bias is one thing. Disparaging the entire profession of journalism, qua journalism, is something else.

Category: Instapundit, Journalism

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