Monday, August 20, 2012

Journalists on the Edge of Truth - NYTimes.com

Excerpt from a David Carr online journalism reality check; also see A Media Personality, Suffering a Blow to His Image, Ponders a Lesson (NYT on Fareed Zakaria)
"The self-cleaning tendencies of the Web got credit for unearthing the misconduct in the first place. Then again, the Web’s ferocious appetite for content — you are only as visible as your last post, as Clay Shirky recently said to me — probably had something to do with why Mr. Lehrer tried to feed the beast with retreads and half-baked work.
Before we place all the blame on the Web, let’s remember that Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass and Janet Cooke all made stuff up for print realms. But part of the problem with journalism online is that it all seems mutable. The truth, if there is one, emerges in the wash and if there is an error, well, that’s what find and replace is for, right? Or maybe it can be finessed in the next post."
Journalists on the Edge of Truth - NYTimes.com

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