Are We Bidding Farewell to Advocacy Journalism?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/17-0

With the passing of Daniel Schorr and the forced retirement of Helen Thomas, are we bidding farewell to "advocacy journalism," the journalist who makes news rather than reports it? I think not. All journalism is advocacy of one sort or another.

That Thomas and Schorr have no clear successors hardly demonstrates the passing of advocacy journalism. A journalist's questions neither are nor can be merely neutral and descriptive. Advocacy journalism remains a staple of the D.C. press corps, but it is advocacy on behalf of the privileged and the powerful.

Compare two questions at President Barack Obama's first press conference:

Question 1: "What is your strategy for engaging Iran? And when will you start to implement it? Will your timetable be affected at all by the Iranian elections? And are you getting any indications that Iran is interested in a dialogue with the United States?

Question 2: "Mr. President, do you think that Pakistan and are maintaining the safe havens in Afghanistan for these so-called terrorists? And, also, do you know of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons?"


More at the link ---

substitution for Ed Schultz yesterday. He sure had Chris Van Hollen's BVDs in a knot with questions regarding the infamous Catfood Commission!