September 10, 2004

What is the Job of the Press?

Honestly, I'm not so sure sometimes. Typically, most of its foreign-policy coverage involves repeating what government officials say about particular situations. There are many correspondents assigned to cover the White House, Pentagon, State Department, etc., so it is not exactly surprising that the opinions espoused by organizations like these are typically the stories around which news stories are framed.

I don't know how it would be possible to change that, and as a practical matter I don't really see any possible way, but posts like this one by Matt Yglesias really make me wonder if we are not in dire need of a way of rethinking the nature of political "news" in this country. It's standard procedure for most outlets to go ahead and reprint outrageous charges, and then offer little in the way of a critique of such statements, or to bury and obfuscate the critiques they do offer. Frequently this is done in the he-said, she-said idiotic style that most of cable "news" has adopted as model behavior. Is this really informing the American people in a meaningful way?

Posted by armand at September 10, 2004 02:46 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics


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