Got Good Journalism?
Want good government?
CNN layoffs continue, hundreds gone.
NPR freezes hiring, cuts ten million in spending.
Gannett initiates another round of layoffs, affecting about 6% of the news division.
The Washington Post killed their Sunday magazine.
Disney imposes a hiring freeze as well (hello ESPN, and ABC news).
CBS announced a coming “reorganization”. What could that mean?
All this comes on the heels of Meta canning 10,000 and Twitter another 4,400. Which, if we’re being honest, both are in the publishing business, if not the content paying business.
In related news, about 1000 of the cool kids over at the New York Times are planning a walkout next week. Deep thinkers this bunch.
There’s this documentary film exploring the connection between a healthy news media and a healthy democracy. The takeaway is that good government depends on good journalism.
Go figure.
According to the documentary, the US is failing on the journalism side and our leaders are responding accordingly. Running roughshod and whatnot. Profiting for themselves (and their families) through their government “service” and throwing the rest of us right under their campaign bus.
The film was made in 2004. Do you think things have gotten better or worse since then?
The wheels of the bus must go round and round and without good journalism there’s no reason to tap the brakes.
Good journalism is not having one’s child shoot a “documentary” film on their public service. Good journalism doesn’t celebrate that film as if it’s insightful or honest.
Wonder what the budget on this little masterpiece ran, as if the family hasn’t profited enough on us already. Just guessing here, but I’m thinking HBO might have some layoffs to add to the list coming along shortly. People hate this shit.
Sorry, I got distracted there for a sec.
If the journalism you’re getting today was being sold as fresh produce, you’d know it was bad from ten yards away. One should use the same caution when buying fresh fish as they do in consuming day-old news.
Not much of what we’re getting is good, and with the death of print, it’s not even good for wrapping that fish.
Substack does make one pause. People might still be willing to spend money for a product they really want. Hope does spring eternal.
That said (as painful as it was to write), The Curious Society is working to do good journalism, with photographs no less. Visual reportage if you will. Take a look at what we do, real pictures on good, old-fashioned paper. We’re sharing our first issue for only the price of shipping. Get it here. It runs 256 pages, was printed in Italy, features the work of 53 journalists and weighs nearly five pounds. Fair warning, the paper is a little slick for fish and chips. Not very absorbent.