Reporting resources are stretched thin in many places, and judging by this week’s survey results, sequester coverage may not be drawing many web hits. But news organizations that do not report, in ways meaningful to their audience, what will happen before the budget cuts occur may find that if and when they do take place, the public’s nonchalance will turn into distrust—and perhaps even a turning away from the journalists who failed to tell them what was coming.
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People: "we ain't worried because the sequester is just a 2.4% cut in a 3.6 Triliion dollar budget. Get back to us when you're actually serious about doing something to rescue the Republic."
#1 Posted by Tony Morrison, CJR on Mon 25 Feb 2013 at 07:57 PM
Is the media to blame for the lack of worry? Don't see how. When has any reporter asked a government official what he/she is doing to cope with the sequester. All we hear are people are going to starve, be sick from tainted foods, die in plane crashes, etc. And, of course, government employees are going to lose their jobs. Naturally, this is a good thing if they work in the "bloated" defense department, but bad if they work in the civilian sector. The press needs to do more reporting on the "dire warnings" being issued by the FAA, Department of Agriculture, National Health Service, etc. (Because you know, there have been all those "massive cutbacks" in the past in the civilian sector of the federal government.) Sarcasm.....
#2 Posted by Norm, CJR on Tue 26 Feb 2013 at 12:06 AM