Journalists used to have a monopoly on the news. This power bred restraint; whatever their private feelings, they avoided overt personal attacks. Now this power and the consequent restraint are both evaporating. Now they're just Twitter users.
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I doubt that power bred restraint. I think news organizations started getting their asses kicked by new, online 'journalism' which was often more clickbaity and sensational. So news orgs pivoted more to digital distribution and to this form of 'reporting' to stay alive.
I know it's far from universal that power breeds or coevolves with restraint, but it does sometimes happen, and journalism in the golden age really felt like an instance of it. Perhaps it was because they needed people to trust them in order to get stories.
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I think the trust part makes sense. If what you mentioned is true about the monopoly power (I think it was), it means less space and they had to be more selective. Can pick good or bad w/ space. And going “good” is better choice as views will be there regardless.
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I think it's a little more complicated than that. People currently also need access to get stories (there is even a term for it: access journalism). But the number of journalists and publications has increased dramatically.
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One result of that is some publications only care about some of the access they get because they know they won't get the other access. It's one reason why, e.g., NYT is so much more reticent to be critical of Pelosi, but criticizes Trump with abandon. Vice versa for Fox.
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Surely it is one of sense of mission or fear of enforcement that generally breeds restraint. Emergence of this alongside power is merely incidental, and may also happen absent (or preventing) the attainment of power.
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And arguably, in the case of journalism, the problem is that sense of mission has evaporated, or changed?
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"Restraint" likely is the wrong characterization. The greater your power, the less likely you are challenged to actually use it to assail others. Having lost its shield of power, the press is now left to fend for itself, to be attacked and to attack for survival among the masses.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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