Banality

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The Myth of the Liberal Journalist

“The popular illusion that television journalists are liberals does them too much honor. Like all mercenaries they fight for money, not ideology; but unlike true mercenaries, their loyalty is not for sale. It cannot be engaged because it does not exist. Their total lack of commitment to any cause has come to be defined as objectivity. Their daily preoccupation with the trivial and the banal has accumulated large audiences, which, in turn, has encouraged a descent into the search for items of even greater banality. . . .”

 

—Ted Koppel, newsman, 2006

Image: AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari

 

• Editorial Comment: And media consumers? you are what you eat.

• Yesterday’s WORD: Did you miss yesterday’s WORDs from John Maxwell Hamilton on journalism as fun? Click here.  

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