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Feathers flew today at a panel at the Paley Center hosted by the Independent Film Channel’s Media Project. Two burning questions made for lively discussion among panelists Tina Brown, Ari Fleischer, Katy Kay of the BBC, Peggy Noonan, and Josh Rushing of Al Jazeera English. Hereâs some blow-by-blow from the talk.
Issue One: Transparency, Torture Memos, Independent Investigations, Partisanship Revealed
Howâs the Obama administration doing on the transparency front? Itâs âbusiness as usualâ at the White House, says former Bush press secretary Fleischer. âThe media has demands that are insatiable. They wonât be satisfied until thereâs a White House cam 24-hours a day. And if itâs only on 23 hours, theyâll ask, what are you doing in that one hour?â Oh, that greedy media.
Should there be a 9/11-style commission on torture? No way, Fleischer says. It will create too much acrimony and polarize the country. âThere is no entity in this country that can carry out a commission in an impartial way. Itâs a Pandoraâs box that will serve no good purpose.â
âIs the point just to avoid acrimony in and of itself?â asked the BBCâs Katy Kay. Thatâs not all, Noonan says. Itâll also âharm intelligence services. … This is no time to dishearten them.â
See, itâs funny how last night Bill OâReilly complained about so-called âNPR menâ who want to talk about feelingsâbut then today their comrades donât want to pursue an investigation into interrogation techniques because it would cause âacrimony,â which I guess isnât technically a feeling, and âdisheartenâ the sensitive boys and girls of the CIA. Hmm…
Issue Two: The Future of Journalism, Newspapers, Media, the Universe
The question at hand actually was about the rise of the âcommentaryâ class in America and how it has overshadowed the âjournalistâ class, and how that shapes the country. But why answer that question when we can talk about our favorite topic: The Future!!!
Just like the transparency/torture debate spill along Republican/Democrat divisions, the Future debate divided along platform allegiances. In one corner, Tina Brown of the online Daily Beast. And in the other corner, Peggy Noonan, of the dead-tree Wall Street Journal.
Brown says that the Internet has liberated journalists from their corporate owners and their allegiances. âA huge number of papers donât police their communities because they donât want to lose the advertisers,â Brown said. Then, just a few beats later, she said that part of the plan to profit from the Beast involves experimenting with ads that arenât invasive, but that still attract eyeballs. Presumably, itâs okay to piss off those advertisers, then?
But Peggy Noonan won the day (and my heart) with a lucid explanation of why online models are still falling short, offering an example about regional reporting and the bailout. âItâs really expensive having a bureau in Newark, New Jersey,â she said. âItâs really expensive investigating New Jersey. … Somebodyâs gotta be there to watch the flow of money. Without the mainstream media, and without the Newark bureau of The New York Times that money and power will disappear into a million scandals.â And sheâs so right! A few days ago, when I was reading headlines from the Garden State, I was disheartened how weakened the Star-Ledger had become. If any state can create a million scandals, New Jersey can do it for sure.
But Brown wouldnât hear of it. New models will emerge. Philanthropy. Independent bloggers. Newspapers have too much staff. The whole enterprise is too expensive. And, on the Web, the âliberatedâ journalist will find an audience that will support him or her. Itâs too late to fix papers. âThe time to renovate was ten years ago,â Brown said. Whatâs more, the competition on the blogs is akin to competition among publications in the print age. âYou really had to sell your paper.â Weâre in a period of experimentation and innovation and something new will come along that will support journalism. No sense of what that might be, though.
But what about the reality of the working journalist? Noonan asked Fleischer how receptive he was to journalists writing for the Web. âIf I say Iâm Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal or I say Iâm Peggy Noonan of PeggyNoonan.com, heâs not going to be as responsive. … I miss the big thing.â (The newspaper, I presume.)
Fleischer minced his words on this one. Sure, there are some blogs that are quality. But at the end of the day, âNothing replaces the impact of the front page,â Fleischer said. Iâll let that be the final word for now.
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