When amateur kerning experts attack
by digby
This piece by James Fallows is the best explication of the definition, purpose and value of real journalism I’ve read in quite some time. He’s responding to a flap featuring David Frum accusing the New York Times of publishing doctored photos of Palestinian grief (which is wonderfully debunked by my friend Michael Shaw, here) but it’s really about why journalism should be respected.
For all their blind spots and flaws, reporters on the scene are trying to see, so they can tell, and the photographic and video reporters take greater risks than all the rest, since they must be closer to the action. For people on the other side of the world to casually assert that they’re just making things up—this could and would drive them crazy. I’m sure that fakery has occurred. But the claim that it has is as serious as they come in journalism. It goes at our ultimate source of self-respect. As when saying that a doctor is deliberately misdiagnosing patients, that a pilot is drunk in the cockpit, that a lifeguard is purposely letting people drown, you might be right, but you had better be very, very sure before making the claim.
I’ve been a harsh critic of journalists over the years, especially during the Bush era when the Judy Millers of the world were regurgitating propaganda that even a layperson could see from far away deserved more skepticism. And the world of political journalism is an animal of its own that follows a completely different set of rules. But Fallows is talking about real, honest to goodness on-the-ground information gathering, first hand, in order to bring back the facts to the public. It does deserve respect.
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