Reply #10: It may be alive, but it is certainly not supported by any major networks or media outlets. [View All]

[jobycom]

I think the principles of journalism have been tossed in the trash by the entertainment-driven concept of "news" today. Outlets that used to report news now report stories meant to entertain and hold an audience rather than to inform and educate an audience. Spin replaces facts, journalistic integrity loses out to personality and opinion. I quit watching news long ago, but a couple of years ago I had CNN on and listened to a reporter leading off every story with some interjection, like "You're not going to believe this," or "Wow, what until you hear this one." When you've got to introduce a story by telling someone they won't believe it, you've gone a long way from any useful form of journalism.

But the principles are still out there, and there are reporters and journalists who want them to be followed. Right now those people rarely get platforms in any consistent way. But maybe when the world turns again, they will be in the wings waiting, and can get it started again.

We are in the same type of period as the Yellow Journalism era was, where the media hypes its own agenda and feels it's done its job if it sells the most papers. The media now cheerleads popular ideas and people, manipulates people into wars (there are so many similarities between Iraq and the Spanish-American war that it's heartbreaking), and never considers the truth or their responsibility to the world. Because people don't demand more, they hire entertainers, and leave the real journalists to tap away in obscure corners of the Internet. But sooner or later they will want the real journalists back. I hope.