New Yorker — Fear and Favor: Why is everoyne mad at the mainstream media
Article focuses on how both conservatives and liberals have become so angry or disappointed in the media. Editors quoted in the story said it was frustrating because do much of what a newspaper publishes has becomed questioned for bias.
A better understanding of conservatives seems manageable, but there is another possibility, which is much more worrisome, at least to journalists who work in the mainstream media. It is that during the years of heavy shelling—through impeachment and the Florida recount and then the rough 2004 campaign—what they consider their compact with the public has been seriously damaged. Journalism that is inquisitive and intellectually honest, that surprises and unsettles, didn’t always exist. There is no law saying that it must exist forever, and there are political and business interests that would be better off if it didn’t exist and that have worked hard to undermine it. This is what journalists in the mainstream media are starting to worry about: what if people don’t believe in us, don’t want us, anymore?
Maybe the journalists should read JD Lasica’s Why Newspapers Still Matter, but they should avoid this — Is watching the news bad for you? — but, of course that’s TV news, not print news.