I caught the end of a re-run of the C-SPAN "In Depth" book show with Tom Wolfe over the weekend. Wolfe, as many know, got his start as a journalist and all of his books, even his fiction, are the product of a journalist's mindset. A caller asked Wolfe about the state of modern journalism. Wolfe indicated that the state of journalism is not good. One of the primary reasons, he argued, is that so few newspapers face any competition. As he put it, when as a young journalist he would cover a sanitation commission meeting he had to make sure he got everything correct, because if he didn't there were seven other newspapers covering the meeting that would hold him accountable. He said that a journalist without competition is a lazy journalist. I wonder if blogs aren't starting to serve as the competition to newspapers, and thus television news (Wolfe contends that 95% of what TV "reporters" say is just cribbed from newspapers). Certainly on the Dan Rather "fake but accurate" memo scandal and the Eason Jordan story it was bloggers who held mainstream media accountable. Blogging has its own shortcomings, but one wonders if blogs will not ultimately improve the level of reporting across the nation. You can watch all three hours (yes, three hours) of Wolfe online at the Book TV site. I also note that on Sunday Sept. 4 at noon, Harvard professor of Government Harvey Mansfield will be on "In Depth." Don't worry, the NFL doesn't start until the next weekend.
Update: Not that many care, I'm sure, but the Harvey Mansfield program is noon Eastern. So I should have said 11:00am Central and 10:00am Mountain. I assume they will replay at some point. They usually do.
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