Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Good news and bad news about news The headline says "New Survey Finds Huge Gap Between Press and Public on Many Issues," but I found the last line of the story especially interesting: "Overall, 61% of the news pros say that the emergence of the Internet has made journalism better." The article, Editor & Publisher's account of a UConn survey, says 83% of the journalists polled said they use blogs. That's encouraging. The most discouraging news is at the top of the article: 43% of the public says the press has too much freedom, just 14% can name "freedom of the press" as a guarantee in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. For details, see the University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy. Freedom of the press also was a major theme of Bill Moyers' talk to the National Conference for Media Reform last weekend, including news of a campaign to "take public broadcasting back." Video, audio and a text transcript of his speech are online. This passage might refer to some of the people in that poll data: An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only on partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight, to ask questions and be skeptical. That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy -- or worse. 12:55:26 PM    comment []

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