Friday, September 10, 2004

America's Problem: The Media?

CJR September/October 2004: Q & A with Howard Dean
When you’re talking about print being worse than broadcast, are you talking about the reporters for The New York Times and The Washington Post?

Absolutely.

DeLong has been exploring this theme, but since I don't watch television I was surprised to hear Dean say that network TV was, in general higher quality than print media -- including the "elite media".

I am persuaded, however, that the print media is now very poor quality, and that the NYT is no better than the rest. I don't know why, but I suspect part of the reason is that the overall print media business is less profitable than it once was.

A scarier possibility, may be that corporations, including the print media, are increasingly customer driven. They give consumers what consumers want. Unfortunately, most consumers don't want truth. They want comfort.

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