Newspapers Are Just So 1972
I thought the Washington Posts’s Jim Brady, as a little light relief from the all ‘abuse’ he’s been suffering, might like a missive from overseas.
This is what I sent, ( after first deleting all the scatological references to intestinal products and comparisons of the WaPo staff to the courtiers of the Sun King.)
Dear Jim,
I’ve been following both sides of this affair from across the pond here in NL.
I must say I fail to see the utility in publishing a hit piece on the blogosphere now, thus reigniting the anger against you and your once-proud paper. It does nothing but make you look like one of those people who lose an argument badly and publcly, then go off and snipe from a safe distance to try and reclaim some of their lost dignity.
This whole imbroglio came about because the WaPo and its editorial staff failed to recognise what has been true for some time, that it and papers like it no longer control the public’s gateways to information. We are all our own journalists now, and we don’t need you any more.
Not only that, bloggers have the breadth and depth in numbers and knowledge to fact-check any piece almost instantly, as you saw when your story regarding ‘thousands’ of ‘abusive’ comments was thoroughly debunked by Jane Hamsher and others.
I’m not sure that the Post’s editorial board get what an own goal this has all been.
You’ve managed to rile a formerly loyal group of readers, who will now be looking for any excuse to attack you, and for what? For the satisfaction of this latest little piece of esprit d’escalier, that does the Washington Post no favours and makes you as an editor look plain petty and what’s perhaps worse, waaay behind the times. The WaPo is in danger of becoming an antedeluvian old media crock, which is sad.Oh well, everything must pass, including the WaPo and its editors.
I think that we’re watching the initial death throes of old media here – it’s just that the WaPo’s demise was hastened by its own ineptitude in handling its online presence. After the way the WaPo, in the person of Jim Brady, treated its readers over the Howell errors, in my opinion it has forfeited its right, under Brady at least, to any presumption of disinterestedness and balance in its reporting.
If a newspaper tells lies about its own readers, what else will it lie about?
Tags: Media Jim Brady, Washington Post, Blogging
