Mr. Obama said he noted the trend. “I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,” the President said. “What I hope is that people start understanding if you’re getting your newspaper over the Internet, that’s not free and there’s got to be a way to find a business model that supports that.” – Newspaper journalism gets words of praise Print media’s role vital, Obama says
Memo to President Obama.
There are blogs. Then there is new media. I’ve talked about the difference before. Huffington Post, Politico, Marcy Wheeler, Spencer Ackerman and many others who not only offer context and opinion, but do important reporting. Marc Lynch, Laura Rozen, two of the most important writers on foreign policy. And remember Nico Pitney’s contribution during the Iranian election “green wave” uprising?
I do opinion, but I also cover news stories, focusing on foreign policy, offering political analysis as well.
Where would the Israel – Palestinian conversation be without new media?
A conversation the New America Foundation’s Daniel Levy arranged that included Ms. Aida Touma-Sleiman, in which I participated, is a prime example. Talking about the plight of women amidst Israel’s actions:
My question was on Arab-Israeli challenges for women under a Netanyahu-Lieberman government. Mr. Zahalka quickly mentioned that they made history this last election with Haneen Zoubi being the first Arab female ever elected to the Knesset. This quote from her is priceless (photo via):
“I don’t want to become the Knesset address for Arab women’s issues. I need to raise the interest of the men in my party on women’s issues, not allow their interest to wane because they can dump the issue on me.” – Knesset Member, Hannen Zoubi
Zahalka then continued, saying that women’s equality is struggling; main problems for Arab-Israeli women is participation of work for them, which “is very, very low. … Without work you can’t have independence.”
Ms. Touma-Sleiman, answering my question, says the biggest challenges are: 1) women living in militaristic state; 2) part of Palestinian minority discriminated against; 3) “our own society.” Extremism and racism make it “more difficult” to pay attention to other cycles of discrimination. Threats in the public discourse make it more difficult to communicate “feminist discourse” and get the attention to women. … .. Low level of employment; other problems… “I could speak to this for three or four hours… (laughter)…” on the issue of women.
Remember the pre-election Iran polling? Something I covered, where facts led in live reporting (as it happened). Context offered via a post on Huffington Post.
Covering an event at the Cato Institute entitled “Can the Pentagon be Fixed?”, I reported the facts as presented by experts that included Tom Ricks, as well as Winslow Wheeler, Danielle Brian, and Col. McGregor.
Covering the U.S. – Saudi conference, hosted by New America Foundation earlier this year, facts led. Few reporting on the off the record kerfuffle between State’s Burns and the Saudis over Israel.
Remember the Dipnote fail? It wasn’t earth shattering, but that the State Department’s blog never mention the Iranian election explosion sure seemed noteworthy to me.
I don’t have a fraction of the budget of Politico, an understatement, but I get out there whenever possible on important stories, usually things that are under-reported. New media isn’t free either, though many readers, unfortunately, think it is. I do this on a shoe string budget, with advertising (thankful for the Obama health care ad), but also contributions, which are few and far between right now, but come from people who believe new media and what I do is important. Funding, unfortunately, kept me from attending WJC’s CGI conference in New York this year, which will include a focus on aiding women around the world, something that is a main focus of my work right now, but I simply couldn’t afford. Watch to see who reports on this and then decide how important it is to support new media people like myself.
Pres. Obama aids the false notion that newspapers and their employees have a monopoly on reporting and offering what’s important when he reduces new media to only blogs that are “all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context.”
It would be insulting if it weren’t so ignorant, but more than that, it is infused with self-interest.
Imagine the health care debate without blogs like Open Left, Firedoglake, Digby, Down with Tyranny’s Howie Klein, a man who does more for the progressive cause than you can possibly imagine.
Craig Crawford is correct about what bailing out the newspaper business would mean.
Putting aside the cost in these times of rising federal debt and the public’s growing fatigue with bailouts, it’s a dicey concept because newspapers that owe their lives to the government are probably not worth having. The potential for politicians to directly or indirectly influence coverage would not exactly build reader confidence.
[...] There was already a hint of an agenda in Obama’s remarks about a bailout. As newspaper readership declines, he expressed concern about “the direction of the news” and the loss of “journalistic integrity, fact-based reporting, serious investigative reporting.”
Also a noble cause, but insisting on quality journalism in exchange for federal support raises questions about how that would be guaranteed and who gets to define what it means.
The importance is funding vital news organizations, including new media, so that foreign policy issues can be covered, along with domestic. Foreign policy is still something the print media still does much better than new media.
However, it won’t keep me from working diligently to get a project funded that allows me to put myself in far off places where I can report on important issues, while simultaneously trying to keep a viable commercial new media company in the black. It’s the ultimate juggling act. Stay tuned.
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