How to save the fourth estate.

Saw this article today on a report on how to save journalism. Of course the solution that the politically moderate and fiscally responsible folk over at Columbia University suggest is to tax and spend other people's money to solve the problem. Because that solution has worked so well in so many other areas, like failing public schools, they are doing fine now because of all the money thrown at them. The premise behind all this is that journalism serves an important role to society and society should pay to preserve this institution. That premise however fails on two levels the first level is that journalism has failed to keep up with technology and almost everything they once provided is now available to everyone around the world for free on the internet. The second level on which it fails is journalists have been neglecting their duty and not providing a decent product that people will put their faith in and pay for. Research and fact checking is almost non existent, unless the party you are fact checking disagrees with your worldview. That's right, CNN fact checked Saturday Night Live making fun of Obama. This only shortly followed the White House's communications director calling Fox News a wing of the republican party on CNN of all places. Did she not see the campaign? Did she not see the entire media establishment hurl Obama into office without taking time to wipe the drool from their mouths or responsibly investigate him? The point is there is a template in the establishment media, republicans bad - democrats good. I would rather they treat them all as bad, because they are, but you have sitting democratic congressmen who hid bribe money in their fridge or belonged to the KKK. Democrat scandals get ignored and anything against the republicans gets amplified and repeated, even if it's proved untrue later. There are still people who claim that Bush lied because all of the inelegance services of the world were wrong and Sadam didn't have WMD's.

Journalism is dead, and journalism killed it. I don't know why reporters believe that everyone has to share their worldview or that journalism is about opinions and scandal with absolutely no research. It could be argued that the "opinions" of journalists are just them trying to promote what is good or morally right, but a good journalist would realize that things that are decided in the arena of politics and elections are not for them to decide. Also from a marketing point of view, going political alienates %50 of the country. Why does Fox News do so well? Because they appeal to the %50 that have been alienated and they have no competition. Why do MSNBC and CNN do so poorly? Because they have lots of competition saying the exact same thing.

How do you save journalism? Here's my multistep plan. Step 1: Take journalism out of the archaic (liberal infested)  liberal arts system and put it into business schools or communication schools. Journalism isn't about writing, it's about communicating what's going on and selling it. Make at least a year if not two about just research. You need to know about what you write about and people stop trusting you if your work is constantly in opposition to the facts, see the New York times. (I'm also for everyone at every level of education having to take economics every year. Just like history, science and math. Maybe that will destroy this notion that the way to solve a problem is to tax rich people and spend their money to give stuff away for free.) Step 2: Disavow the establishment. News outlets need to start fresh and start over. Divorce your ideology and start producing an objective product people can trust. That means take the editorials off the front page and leave them in the back with the crosswords. Step 3: Change. Just change, it's time to change the way you do business. I think this internet thing is going to be a big deal, and it's time to start acting like it. Stop trying to save newspapers and local news.

In short, tell the truth, not your truth, and stop being old.