Such is the state of journalism today that a not for profit organization ProPublica formed to provide investigative journalism for the public good, “reporter Sheri Fink has been honored with a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for an article published last August in the New York Times Magazine. In addition, reporting by Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber of ProPublica on lax oversight of nursing in California, published in the Los Angeles Times, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the Pulitzer’s highest honor.”
As Rachel points out in the short clip below, this Pulitzer is a first because it was won by an organization formed by philanthropists to do the hard investigative reporting newspapers used to do. Sadly, not so much anymore. The news media in West Virginia haven’t served their readers well and this quote from an editorial just days before the mine tragedy gives an impression of where their sympathies lie.
Coal miners and their families deserve to be protected from occupational hazards such as black lung disease. We join U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., in that belief.
But miners also ought to be able to count on the good pay and good benefits provided by their industry. Action by Byrd may make it more difficult for coal companies to remain competitive and able to offer such jobs.
Then we have our own local paper, The World, in a recent ‘cheers and jeers’ segment actually mocked the families living near the proposed mine sites for wanting the county to do some real due diligence and for once actually know what they are doing with public assets and public money. Who the hell does the editor of The World really think he is?
One thing he isn’t is a real newspaper man doing the type of investigative journalism American’s came to expect not so long ago. Like so many others, reconstituting press releases and presenting it as news is the easiest way to pay the bills and informing the public suffers as a consequence. Imagine, mocking your own readers… and they can’t even write a decent editorial. Jeers to The World for forgetting how to be a newspaper.
But Clark looks SOOO good in tights and pom-poms. And he’s SOOOO good at it. He can do a double-flip if asked,excuse me, paid to do so.
Those of us who grew up with a REAL local newsman, who usually owned his paper, remember when every local meeting was covered, local business dealings were covered. If someone was doing something, it was reported, truthfully reported. They actually worked the paper.
I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a local paper to make at least a minimal effort to report the truth.
Off-topic a tad, but I called a local tv news channel asking why a certain, very important issue was not even mentioned on their station, guess what I was told? “No one told us about it”. It was said in all seriousness. I exploded and asked him, “No one INVITED your sorry arse ? To the news? Are you kidding me?” Does anyone there even walk to the door, open the door, walk down the street and actually talk to someone? Obviously they don’t. I was shocked at his lack of understanding what he had just said.
Has corporate news completely sucked the brains out of these people?