21st Century Muckrakers
Watchdog reporting resides at the core of what journalism does. Its roots dig deeply into the common ground uniting the muckrakers’ unearthing of public and private scandals a century ago with what investigative reporters are illuminating today. Though reporting and distribution of this news is very different in the digital era, unfortunately the human conditions requiring press scrutiny are not. These include patterns of corruption and malfeasance among those holding powerful positions of public and private trust.
I think he has a point. I think television and streaming video can give citizens a window into public meetings and the sausage-making of governance. But gavel-to-gavel camera work is not a replacement for good old shoe-leather city hall beat reporting. I'm more interested in what happens in the back rooms before and after the gavel falls. You won't see that on government cable. As to who pays, well, it's the taxpayer and the cable subscriber, so most taxpayers are paying twice, once for the access and again for the programming.
RELATED ARTICLE
“When Video Is King’
- Stuart WatsonAnd Charlotte is an extreme example since the public pays for cable and for broadcast programming on WTVI. And this happened long before the shift to the digital spectrum. In short, I'm not questioning the value of services like C-SPAN and their local equivalents, but journalism is not stenography nor is it locking down a camera and turning it on whenever the gavel falls. When local television bails on city hall coverage, I'm not sure who will pick up the slack—bloggers? do-gooders? volunteers?—my deep concern is that no one will.
Stuart Watson
Nieman Fellow '08
RELATED ARTICLE
“When Video Is King’
- Stuart WatsonAnd Charlotte is an extreme example since the public pays for cable and for broadcast programming on WTVI. And this happened long before the shift to the digital spectrum. In short, I'm not questioning the value of services like C-SPAN and their local equivalents, but journalism is not stenography nor is it locking down a camera and turning it on whenever the gavel falls. When local television bails on city hall coverage, I'm not sure who will pick up the slack—bloggers? do-gooders? volunteers?—my deep concern is that no one will.
Stuart Watson
Nieman Fellow '08
