http://www.leadingedgeassociates.net/blog/2006/10/30/who-is-a-journalist/ Aim Higher Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:33:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 http://www.leadingedgeassociates.net/blog/2006/10/30/who-is-a-journalist/#comment-4 Sat, 11 Nov 2006 07:15:46 +0000 http://www.leadingedgeassociates.net/blog/2006/10/30/who-is-a-journalist/#comment-4 To this day, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press have shown virtually zero interest in the Anuak genocide, despite the fact that about 1,500 Anuak refugees live in the state. This number includes virtually the entire strong, young, healthy male and female leadership of the entire Anuak tribe which now numbers only 100,000 or so in Ethiopia. On the other hand, many other kinds of civic and religious groups in Minnesota have rallied to the Anuak's aid, especially churches with Anuak in their congregations, human rights groups, and several colleges and universities have organized conferences and special events. How come the state's largest newspapers aren't in this good company? They are lagging way behind the non-profit sector on this story. I think if you look at the papers themselves you have a big part of the answer. The papers are getting fatter and fatter with lifestyle, celebrity, and demographic-targeted coverage trying to lock-in young readers, wealthy readers, tech-savvy readers, etc. Meanwhile the news hole shrinks and shrinks and the content generally follows increasingly archaic story forms, formats, and formulas. (Including "he said, she said," which millions of readers have long since caught onto.) I have to say that in addition, I encountered a great timidity at the Star-Tribune on the Anuak story when I approached them. Even after I had returned from Africa having interviewed several dozen eyewitnesses to the massacre of December 13 myself, as well as having personally interviewed the Ethiopian government official who likely ordered the killings, I was told time after time by the Star-Trib editors (I wrote three drafts, all of them killed) that my sourcing was not good enough. If this genocide was real, how come the United Nations hadn't said anything? How come Human Rights Watch hadn't said anything? How come The New York Times hadn't said anything? This speaks to many things, one of them being mainstream journalism's Achilles Heel for relying so cravenly on official sources. But also, that even our big metropolitan dailies don't have many folks on staff with international expertise. It didn't compute to my editors, who had never lived abroad, that the United Nations might actually be complicit in the African genocide. (Just as it was in Rwanda.) To me, newspapers have been on a slippery slope for a couple of decades, during which time journalism motivated by a public service aim has shrivelled, and journalism serving a profit-making corporation has strengthened. But the latter isn't really even journalism, in my book. It's more like advertising or propaganda. The hopeful part though is that a lot of newsroom refugees are starting up civic-centered, idealistic, muckraking journalism again in projects just like this one at Leading Age. Sometimes the journalism is reportage, and sometimes it's thinking things through at a fundamenta level, as on Leading Edge. Either way, it's a really invigorating and hopeful trend. Long life here on the Internet, Jerry and Larry! To this day, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press have shown virtually zero interest in the Anuak genocide, despite the fact that about 1,500 Anuak refugees live in the state. This number includes virtually the entire strong, young, healthy male and female leadership of the entire Anuak tribe which now numbers only 100,000 or so in Ethiopia. On the other hand, many other kinds of civic and religious groups in Minnesota have rallied to the Anuak’s aid, especially churches with Anuak in their congregations, human rights groups, and several colleges and universities have organized conferences and special events. How come the state’s largest newspapers aren’t in this good company? They are lagging way behind the non-profit sector on this story. I think if you look at the papers themselves you have a big part of the answer. The papers are getting fatter and fatter with lifestyle, celebrity, and demographic-targeted coverage trying to lock-in young readers, wealthy readers, tech-savvy readers, etc. Meanwhile the news hole shrinks and shrinks and the content generally follows increasingly archaic story forms, formats, and formulas. (Including “he said, she said,” which millions of readers have long since caught onto.) I have to say that in addition, I encountered a great timidity at the Star-Tribune on the Anuak story when I approached them. Even after I had returned from Africa having interviewed several dozen eyewitnesses to the massacre of December 13 myself, as well as having personally interviewed the Ethiopian government official who likely ordered the killings, I was told time after time by the Star-Trib editors (I wrote three drafts, all of them killed) that my sourcing was not good enough. If this genocide was real, how come the United Nations hadn’t said anything? How come Human Rights Watch hadn’t said anything? How come The New York Times hadn’t said anything? This speaks to many things, one of them being mainstream journalism’s Achilles Heel for relying so cravenly on official sources. But also, that even our big metropolitan dailies don’t have many folks on staff with international expertise. It didn’t compute to my editors, who had never lived abroad, that the United Nations might actually be complicit in the African genocide. (Just as it was in Rwanda.) To me, newspapers have been on a slippery slope for a couple of decades, during which time journalism motivated by a public service aim has shrivelled, and journalism serving a profit-making corporation has strengthened. But the latter isn’t really even journalism, in my book. It’s more like advertising or propaganda. The hopeful part though is that a lot of newsroom refugees are starting up civic-centered, idealistic, muckraking journalism again in projects just like this one at Leading Age. Sometimes the journalism is reportage, and sometimes it’s thinking things through at a fundamenta level, as on Leading Edge. Either way, it’s a really invigorating and hopeful trend. Long life here on the Internet, Jerry and Larry!

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