From MediaChannel.org,by Danny Schechter:
"The central question is: how did an institution with a brave history of safeguarding democracy become a threat to its survival?
It has not been a good year for journalists and journalism. 54 reporters died answering the call of duty, the highest death toll in a decade according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Many were killed in Iraq, Others died at home, like investigative journalist Gary Webb by his own hand. What type of despair drives a talented and committed reporter like him to kill himself? We will, I suspect, soon find out. I suspect it is more than just personal despair in light of how his exposes of CIA backed drug pushers were targeted by a mainstream media gang bang. (A CIA internal probe later validated one of his key findings.)
The big fear, as journalists die, is that journalism itself may soon follow.
Some years back, I read a book about the emergence of the "post journalism era" cataloging the abandonment of a commitment to real news in the news business. It spoke of how packaging and "mechanics" and compression and infotainment defines the new uber-merged corporate media order.
At the time, that indictment seemed alarmist, and premature.
Not any more.While some trivialize media as a problem, others are trying to do something about it. That is one of the big stories about the media not yet in the media: the emergence of a media and democracy movement. Watch for a year of media activism and advocacy from such groups as Media For Democracy, MediaChannel, Free Press, Common Cause, Media Matters for America, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Consumers Union, FAIR and, possibly, MoveOn.org."
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