Jay Rosen: "Winter is coming: prospects for the American press under Trump"

[muriel_volestrangler]

Thanks to calimary for linking to this - I thought it worth a thread of its own:

For a free press as a check on power this is the darkest time in American history since World War I, when there was massive censorship and suppression of dissent. I say this because so many things are happening at once to disarm and disable serious journalism, or to push it out of the frame. Most of these are well known, but it helps to put them all together. Here is my list:
...
The common elements: Low trust all around, an emboldened and nationalist right wing that treats the press as natural enemy, the bill coming due for decades of coasting on a model in political reporting that worked well for “junkies” but failed to engage the rest of us, the strange and disorientating fact that reality itself seems to have become a weaker force in politics, the appeal of the “strong man” and his propaganda within an atmosphere of radical doubt, the difficulty of applying standard methods of journalism to a figure in power who is not trying to represent reality but to substitute himself for it as a show of strength, the unsuitability of prior routine as professionals in journalism try to confront these confusing conditions, a damaged economic base, weak institutional structure and newsroom mono-culture that hinders any creative response, and a dawning recognition that freedom of the press is a fragile state, not a constitutional certainty.
...
What not to do…
24. Don’t recruit Trump loyalists into the news and opinion space (Jeffrey Lord of CNN is the model) as a gaudy show of balance. This will not save you. Conservative, red state, working class and rural American voices may deserve special recruitment, but if they have integrity these people are just as likely to be critical of Trump.

http://pressthink.org/2016/12/winter-coming-prospects-american-press-trump/

Measures worth taking (not “solutions.”)
...
But it is true that Trump uses his Twitter feed to deflect, distract, intimidate, monopolize and confuse. The press should find a way of handling — and fact-checking — these bulletins that shrinks them into a sidebar, or weaves them into a larger story originated by journalists rather than Trump’s Twitter finger. (One option: annotation.) Don’t let his feed set your agenda. And learn to be more careful with your headlines! That may be all he wants: your lazy headline.

http://pressthink.org/2016/12/prospects-american-press-trump-part-two/

There's a lot more at the links, both about the symptoms of the problems, and measures to take (and not take). Rosen may be the best analyst of the media around today, and this gives us a lot we can think about, and use if we contact anyoen in the media about their stories. And if we can express to the media what they're doing wrong (or right), it may help them fix themselves

[Dustlawyer]

1. +1!!! THIS!

I would prefer they not cover his tweets at all, but I know that is not realistic. I like his suggestion on how to handle his tweets, to put them into the context of a larger piece that may be critical. Trump vying for "...lazy headlines..." with his tweets is spot on!

Journalism better wake up because the populism that will do nothing but grow during this crap wad's time in office will not be tolerant of sycophant journalism!

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

2. First paragraph from #27....

.....

27. Uncouple the news agenda from Trump’s Twitter feed. I don’t agree with those who say the press should ignore Trump’s tweets. Even calling them tweets is in a way an illusion. These are public statements from the president-elect. Bulletins from the top. Naming them for their means of delivery (Twitter) doesn’t help. They can’t be ignored any more than an announcement on whitehouse.gov
......

I believe the last sentence is most important. We need to think differently.

[heaven05]

3. Nice advice

but ameriKKKan media is a walking corpse. No way to resuscitate the truly departed.