Used car salesmen? Terrorists? Or journalists?
Well, not journalists. Not these days. That's for sure. Jay Rosen exposes contemporary journalism.
Some prize Rosen quotes, courtesy of Conor Friedersdorf:
When journalists define politics as a game played by the insiders, their job description becomes: find out what the insiders are doing to "win" the game. Reveal those tactics to the public because then the public can... well, this is where it gets dodgy. As my friend Todd Gitlin once wrote, news coverage that treats politics as an insiders' game invites the public to become "cognoscenti of their own bamboozlement."
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In politics, our journalists believe, it is better to be savvy than it is to be honest or correct on the facts. It's better to be savvy than it is to be just, good, fair, decent, strictly lawful, civilized, sincere, thoughtful or humane. Savviness is what journalists admire in others. Savvy is what they themselves dearly wish to be. (And to be unsavvy is far worse than being wrong.)
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Take the most generic "savviness question" there is. One journalist asks another: how will this play with the voters? Listening to that, how will this play with the voters, haven't you ever wanted to shout at your television set, "hey buddy... I'm a voter! Don't talk about me like I'm not in the room when I'm sitting right here watching you." This is what's so odd about savviness as a political style performed for the public. It tries to split the attentive public off from the rest of the electorate, and get us to join up with the insiders. Under its gaze, other people become objects of political technique.
I don't think Rosen puts a foot wrong. Being as I don't need another car, that leaves me with terrorists. Better than journalists, anyway. But I think the problem here is really one of labeling. The people Rosen is talking about aren't journalists. They may claim to be journalists, but they're not. They're talking heads or they're "reporters." Journalism doesn't deserve the stain they leave on the profession.
"Inside" is where the big money is. But the fresh air is out here. Can't live without fresh air.
