Friday, May 30, 2008

Where have all the journalists gone?

I've been ranting about this since before 2000 when W. was stealing his way into office, and there is little doubt that the major media outlets have been gradually whithering and wasting away, becoming self-mocking caricatures resembling nothing more than tabloids. As the furor over Scott McClellan's new book has brought this issue to the forefront again, it is as important as ever to ask where have all the journalists gone?

It is safe to say that they have left all of the major media outlets, but there were a few truth tellers out there all along, and they were to be found in the Knight-Ridder and McClatchy families (McClatchy bought Knight-Ridder in 2006).

Apart from the truly hard working folks in the blogosphere who I'd say work much harder than most big media journalists for a fraction of the reward and an even smaller level of reach and exposure, there are a few places where you can find true investigative journalists. Here are my recommendations for old school gumshoes:

McClatchy DC Bureau

Christian Science Monitor
Greg Palast

And in the blogs:

Daily Kos
Al Giordano at The Field
Atrios
Nukes & Spooks
Andrew Sullivan
Glenn Greenwald (from Salon)
Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks
Firedoglake
Talking Points Memo

(there are other good blogs linked lower down in the right column)

The bottom line is, if you want the truth, you'll be hard pressed to find it at ABC, NBC, CBS, or CNN.

As for Fox, give me a fucking break. I also highly recommend ignoring the Associated Press, especially now that they've got Fox's Roger Ailes on their Board of Directors.


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