Sunday, February 26, 2012

Gonzo Week Cont'd...Don't Know Much About Objectivity

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Look.

It was good, hard-nosed investigative digging by Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor that brought the full extent and systematic nature of the Robo/Real Call story out into the open for everyone to see, consider, and think about.

And I, for one hope there is a whole lot more of it.

That kind of really fine straight up 'objective' investigative journalism, I mean

And I hope that editors and publishers are right now, at this very minute, scrambling to rearrange schedules and rosters, as well as reallocate resources, to give more good reporters like Maher and McGregor the time and space to do it also so they don't get beaten like a gong come Monday morning (and beyond).

But.

As the good Docktor once said about a very different regime that also lived on (and, of course, ultimately expired early because of) Dirty Tricks....

In the end, objective journalism is just not enough:


"Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective journalism - which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place. He looked so good on paper that you could almost vote for him sight unseen. He seemed so all-American, so much like Horatio Alger, that he was able to slip through the cracks of Objective Journalism. You had to get Subjective to see Nixon clearly, and the shock of recognition was often painful."
Hunter S. Thompson, 1994.
'He Was A Crook' In: Better Than Sex, Random House, pg 243.


Now.

I'm not saying anybody has to 'find' evidence of ibogaine smeared into the lip balm and/or colchicine swirled into the coffee or anything.

But.

I am staying is that it is time for the pundits to stop squinting at the individual pixels. Instead, they need to step back and have a look at the really big picture.

And no more of this 'he said/she said' and/or 'both sides do it' codswallop.

Because now is the time when we need to see things clearly.

And if a 'shock of recognition' is what results, so be it.

OK?

.

5 comments:

Bill said...

Pundits - "squinting at the individual pixels"' thats just so exactly the way to not reveal the big picture. It's both microscopic and myopic with deliberate intent to misinform/spin.

Balanced? Route reporting 'she said / they did way back when' just more deflection and spin. I will take real gonzo journalism any day over the gong show shadow reporting we are mostly being fed nowadays. Just look what a mess their message has supported.

Thanks Ross

Kim said...

Isn't that exactly why we end up here?

Personally, I come here every day. Then I go through the blogroll on the left. Then I check what the cbc and friends have to say.

North Van's Grumps said...

Was this Harper Conservative Press officer Katie Martin the same Katie Martin who is now working for Congressman Jeff Flake, who supports Obama?

Because, you see, from one of the Public Eye OnLine archives there's this about Press Officer Katie Martin and the use of CIMS in conjunction with Harper in 2004.

Mr. Beer N. Hockey said...

The mutually parasitic relationship between government and journalists, politicians and journalists and capitalists and journalists could use a good shake-up. In the context of world affairs, the fact journalists in this country are not being summarily executed in the street should be giving us all a pretty good idea of how poorly they are keeping people informed about what is going on. Remember how dismissive all the journalists were when the government announced they were going to give it to us up the bum with the HST? Remember how supportive damn near every one of them was of the war in Iraq? I could go on and on. Journalists used to know where the horses are buried, now the only thing they are likely to ever find buried is their own rotting integrity.

Anonymous said...

Jeff Flake is a Republican and not a supporter of Obama's.