{"id":1762,"date":"2009-09-14T21:26:09","date_gmt":"2009-09-15T01:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/09\/14\/why-am-i-writing-this\/"},"modified":"2009-09-14T21:26:09","modified_gmt":"2009-09-15T01:26:09","slug":"why-am-i-writing-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/09\/14\/why-am-i-writing-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Am I Writing This?"},"content":{"rendered":"

An active, informative press is the foundation of a democratic society.  We\u2019ve got active!  Informative?  Not so much.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think journalism is one of the noblest professions.  Not because it was mine for five or six years\u2014not always nobly\u2013but because I think a lot of young, bright people enter the profession every year with, for the most part, good intentions.  But something happens so that the ones who can be, first and foremost, hyperbolic, contentious and shallow seem to get a lot of attention and drive the discussion.  Or that may be all we as a society want to listen to.  <\/span><\/p>\n

That of course is the dilemma of modern journalism.  How does it remain relevant?  I have no clear answers.  But there are some things we can try\u2014and things we shouldn\u2019t do.  <\/span><\/p>\n

This blog will focus on both.  I\u2019ll link to the research, discussion and examples of possible solutions and, I suppose, reasoned judgments as to why the profession is just hunky-dory right now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though a journalist for a fairly brief time, I have dealt with journalists most of my professional life, as a consultant to businesses, non-profits and politicians and in grassroots campaigns.  Through those nearly 40 years, I have the sense that most want a good story done well, honestly.  That\u2019s as good as most of us will do in our careers.  How can they write and broadcast informative stories in these times?  Are they captive of the sturm und drang of today\u2019s society and unquenchable quests for profit.  Or are they willful co-conspirators?<\/span><\/p>\n

Who the hell knows?  But I feel the press\u2014mainstream and alternatives that are honest\u2014need to lead rather than excuse themselves by claiming subservient to eyeballs and profits.  That leadership has to start at the top.  For the most part, reporters are not the main problem.  If journalism is done well honestly, or at least better than a lot of what we see, hear and read, I think we will tune in and it can make money. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not  pining for a bygone era.  I\u2019m not saying that there isn\u2019t a lot USA Today, once considered heretical, cable television, often considered ill-considered, talk radio, with its glorious history of demagoguery, the tabloid freak shows and bloggers can\u2019t teach us something about what makes good journalism.  But I would choose wisely.<\/span><\/p>\n

I read The Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal most mornings with coffee.  How much I can read otherwise depends on my day, though my wife would say \u201ctoo much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m liberal about most political issues.  I\u2019ve also blogged since 2004 but fitfully at Commonwealth Commonsense.  It started out as a blog about Virginia politics, quickly got into the national scene and lately, I\u2019ve written a lot about media issues.  So much so that I thought a separate blog made sense, er, commonsense.<\/span><\/p>\n

My day-job journalism years were as a radio and television reporter, though I\u2019ve written a few op-ed columns and freelanced even less. About half my broadcasting career was at public stations and half at commercial ones.  Why I left the profession had as much to do with a fast growing family, but if I hadn\u2019t maybe I\u2019d\u2019ve ended up asking the future president, \u201cDo you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?\u201d or writing for the umpteenth time about \u201cdeath panels\u201d\u2013and been so proud of myself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, I love the guy and gals of the press.  The News Commonsense blog is for you!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An active, informative press is the foundation of a democratic society.  We\u2019ve got active!  Informative?  Not so much. I think journalism is one of the noblest professions.  Not because it was mine for five or six years\u2014not always nobly\u2013but because I think a lot of young, bright people enter the profession every year with, for… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}