This is Tim Dickinson’s Rolling Stone article on Obama and the Gulf spill. RS is usually center-left and generally “friendly” towards the Obama White House. In this case, not so much. Good, well-researched article and one that doesn’t play fast and loose with the facts, nor does it present as an “opinion” piece (a convenient mechanism that many newspapers and periodicals use to try and hide the slant).[/quote]
Thanks, Allan. I get so hungry for writing that actually qualifies as journalism that I really don’t give a rat’s ass if it casts a politician, government official, or any other individual about whom I may have a favorable opinion, in an unfavorable light. I want my government leaders to be held up to the light in regard to their job performances. I don’t want them to have false charges lodged or questionable aspersions cast against them, nor do I want “whitewash” reporting that sounds like it came from a PR office. I just want unbiased, factual, unemotional reporting of what these people do on a daily basis.
I, too, have noticed the growing absence of reporters on the pages of newspapers and magazines, replaced by an increasing number of “opinion writers” or “commentators”. If I gave a damn about some idiot’s opinion, I’d still be paying visits to my family on holidays. Worse yet is the regular appearance of reporters from some of the newspapers on shows such as Keith Olbermann’s or Rachel Maddow’s in a faux-interview setting. Whether or not I agree with them is irrelevant: when they appear on shows with self-admitted political bias, day after day, and spout out “responses” that align 100% with the opinions of the host, how can I possibly trust what they write in a news story, on ANY topic?
You’re right: a major cataclysmic change is taking place in the news industry and in journalism, and I’m not sure that there will be a Fourth Estate remaining when the dust settles.
