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I get why people are mad at the press. I do. We have privileged jobs. But I promise you that when we're all gone, when the companies you work for use pandemic relief to do stock buybacks and pad CEO bonuses instead of helping you, they aren't going to write about it themselves. https://twitter.com/KevinVesey/status/1261001977598808065
It wasn't UPS that decided to report on their dozens of federal lawsuits about dangerous work conditions and alleged retaliation against those who spoke up. It was my friend @fatimathefatima. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-04/-culture-of-fear-grips-ups-workers-say-injuries-underreported
It wasn't the Army and the Air Force who took themselves to task about the unsafe and unhealthy conditions military families are living in. It was dogged reporting from @LauraGellerTV that forced them to acknowledge it and apologize. https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/investigations/we-owe-them-apologies-air-force-and-army-leaders-answer-questions-on-dangerous-military-housing-conditions/65-5a8677a9-d513-47bd-9262-bf7898085ba2
Indianapolis didn't just decided out of nowhere to find $300,000 to fund the city's first-ever witness protection program. They did it because @ryanmartin and @starwatchtim shined a light on how witnesses were getting intimidated and killed. https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2017/10/19/dont-snitch-witness-intimidation-witness-protection-indiana-indianapolis-murder-homicide/653056001/
It was my friend @hayleighcolombo who looked at how banks redlining black neighborhoods in Indianapolis was hurting families there. The banks didn't just come out one day and say, yep, we did it. https://www.ibj.com/articles/74390-citys-poor-often-have-few-affordable-options-for-banking-other-financial-services
It was @KaraKenney6 who forced the state of Indiana to confront how schools were misreporting and abusing how they were using seclusion and restraint on children. https://www.theindychannel.com/news/call-6-investigators/call-6-school-districts-misreport-seclusion-restraint-incidents
It was reporters who've uncovered how painkiller manufacturers intentionally flooded small towns with opioids, how incompetence and cynical politics poisoned the water in Michigan, how the wealthy the world over were using a Panamanian firm to evade international sanctions.
These things don't just come out on their own. It was a reporter, @jkbjournalist, who broke open the details of the sweetheart deal that let Jeffrey Epstein keep preying on young girls. https://www.miamiherald.com/topics/jeffrey-epstein
These stories don't get told without journalists in markets across the country working diligently to uncover them. Even the simplest of these stories had so much inertia against them coming to light. It just doesn't happen on its own. And it won't when journalists are gone.
Every day demands a lot of journalists, and we don't always rise to the occasion. If you think the press did a generally pretty bad job covering 2016, I agree with you. If you think we're doing a generally pretty bad job covering 2020... I agree with you.
But most journalists don't write about politics. They cover school boards & police departments & why the nice part of town gets its roads plowed before everybody else. They cover fundraisers to pay for critical surgeries. They write about quiet helpers making the world better.
Journalism isn't just the handful of people who make you mad on cable news. It's journalists across the planet who you've never heard of -- who are happily nameless -- working to help illuminate the world around you. And I promise you it will be a darker world for their absence.
(1/8) Overwhelmed by the response to this thread. Thank you to all who shared kind thoughts and messages of support. Please send the same to your local newsfolk.
I wish I could respond to all of the criticisms individually, but since I can't, I'd like to address the main ones:
I wish I could respond to all of the criticisms individually, but since I can't, I'd like to address the main ones:
(2/8) 1. "Journalists should do a better job calling out failings in their own industry."
I fully agree. I wish nearly every day that David Carr was still around to give us all a kick in the ass.
I fully agree. I wish nearly every day that David Carr was still around to give us all a kick in the ass.
(3/8) We are fortunate to have a number of great journalists on the media beat, though, among them the @CJR's public editors. I encourage you to follow them for thoughtful critics of the press: @gabrielsnyder; @mariabustillos; @hamiltonnolan. And, of course, @Sulliview.
(4/8) "Your coverage of Trump/the WH is biased."
I don't cover the White House. None of the reporters I mentioned do. 99.9% of reporters will never work in the White House press corps. National political coverage and local news are two separate worlds.
I don't cover the White House. None of the reporters I mentioned do. 99.9% of reporters will never work in the White House press corps. National political coverage and local news are two separate worlds.
(5/8) "Journalists should just tell the truth."
The thing about being a journalist is, when you walk in on your first day, they don't give you an omniscient magic 8-ball. We try to get, to their best of our abilities, as close to the truth as possible.
The thing about being a journalist is, when you walk in on your first day, they don't give you an omniscient magic 8-ball. We try to get, to their best of our abilities, as close to the truth as possible.
(6/8) Often it feels like we're in a vast, dark room, with just a tiny flashlight. Other times it feels like you're at the base of a mountain, trying to describe what you see on top.
Sometimes we just get it wrong. Sometimes I have gotten it wrong.
Sometimes we just get it wrong. Sometimes I have gotten it wrong.
(7/8) I wish there were more of us. To check each others' work. To see the mountain from different angles. To shine more flashlights into the darkness.
(8/8) Here's my final thought: Journalism is, like the world is covers, a vast, interconnected ecosystem. All of the parts are rarely in sync. Many compete against each other. Some are broken.
The end result is still far better than no journalism at all.
The end result is still far better than no journalism at all.
