In America, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author , Alex Jones, who once covered the press for the New York Times , has written a book , Losing the News , in which he says turmoil in the news business has resulted in the loss of “ the iron core” of news. He defines this as the core of professionally reported news that determines what a country is as a society .
Now director of Shorenstein Centre on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University ,he was interviewed on Jim Lehrer’s News Hour . Jones said , because of the digital revolution and the economic crisis , the iron core had been eroded from within. High quality reporters who had done great work were simply now not employed by news organizations During the interview , he was asked where was the claimed great journalism . Some critics pointed out the media exhibited a lack of digging in respect of the run- up to the Iraq war and in other matters.
While agreeing with claims that journalism was flawed was absolutely correct, Jones said he was not there to defend journalism as perfect. The structure of professional journalism had, however, produced the most serious public education mechanism in the country . What America knew about its history had, in the most part, come from its news organizations.
“My concern is that what’s happening is that news is being transformed from that hard core to something much more like public relations and spin and advocacy and subjective news , because what we’re losing along with the professional news and the professional journalism is the standard of objectivity in many cases,’ he said. Losing quality reporters in "wholesale “ numbers was something the US could not stand.
Many newspapers, he added , were in real trouble. This point is abundantly clear in Australia in relation to the once mighty Fairfax organisation –Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age - where there have been wholesale staff reductions , its boardroom is involved in an internal brawl and shares today were down to $1.71 . The flim-flam, spin , public relations influence and other shabby aspects of American “ news ” author Jones spoke of are evident Down Under.
Now director of Shorenstein Centre on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University ,he was interviewed on Jim Lehrer’s News Hour . Jones said , because of the digital revolution and the economic crisis , the iron core had been eroded from within. High quality reporters who had done great work were simply now not employed by news organizations During the interview , he was asked where was the claimed great journalism . Some critics pointed out the media exhibited a lack of digging in respect of the run- up to the Iraq war and in other matters.
While agreeing with claims that journalism was flawed was absolutely correct, Jones said he was not there to defend journalism as perfect. The structure of professional journalism had, however, produced the most serious public education mechanism in the country . What America knew about its history had, in the most part, come from its news organizations.
“My concern is that what’s happening is that news is being transformed from that hard core to something much more like public relations and spin and advocacy and subjective news , because what we’re losing along with the professional news and the professional journalism is the standard of objectivity in many cases,’ he said. Losing quality reporters in "wholesale “ numbers was something the US could not stand.
Many newspapers, he added , were in real trouble. This point is abundantly clear in Australia in relation to the once mighty Fairfax organisation –Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age - where there have been wholesale staff reductions , its boardroom is involved in an internal brawl and shares today were down to $1.71 . The flim-flam, spin , public relations influence and other shabby aspects of American “ news ” author Jones spoke of are evident Down Under.
UPDATE: Paul Keating has denied that he has been asked to join the Fairfax board. He felt the " great days of Fairfax" and the print media were over. Meanwhile Crikey founder Stephen Mayne announced he will seek a position on the board and called for other board members with real newspaper experience to be appointed . Most of the board members are said to be over 65 .
