Dr. Yood's Saturday blog post had three points that I would like to second.
I also signed up for the "Do Not Call" list and since then have been plagued by many repetitive calls from telemarketers. I neither own a home nor is JCP&L my energy provider, yet I am receiving numerous calls directed to these categories. I know "cold calling" is a marketing staple, but it only causes ill will to a land line telephone owner who becomes subject to these annoying interruptions.
I also agree with Dr. Yood on the dubious use of anonymous allegations about local public figures. Peccadillos will out on some level without the help of bloggers. If folks are already buzzing about some gossip, putting it on a blog only redounds to the blogger's reputation as a gossipmonger. If one doesn't want to be known as the local Michael Musto, it is better to leave the tittle-tattle to others.
Regarding the local newspaper, beer and pizza both A-1 over the fold do make one wonder what else is happening in Central Jersey. However, in his column Friday, Jay Jefferson Cooke says one thing he has learned over 25 years as a journalist is that "you have to give the people what they want." He cites a "journalism prude" he once knew who insisted that readers must be fed "spinach" whether they like it or not, because it is good for them.
Jefferson Cooke concludes that forcing spinach on people when they want pizza is "an attitude that has wrecked many a business."
Well, the news biz is foundering, by most accounts, so if readers are really echoing the 1928 E.B. White line, "I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it," maybe devoting many column inches to reviews of purveyors of plain cheese pizza is the way to save the industry.
--Bernice
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Bernice, Thanks for making me look up "foundering". I thought you wanted to use floundering, but miss typed! Now I see you have just a much wider vocabulary treasury to chose from than I !!!
ReplyDeleteWith whatever due respect to Cooke, (a journalist?) journalism is not about giving the people what what they want. It is about reporting and investigating news--whether the "people" want it or not, and not creating "news" out of great pizza slices and beer brews (although I enjoy Mark's beer writing and have followed his recommendations). I find it problematic to look at journalism as a business--selling newspapers is a business, but being a journalist is (or should be) about finding the truth and printing it. If the Courier-News finally stops publishing, it is because of larger market forces at work--but I don't think pandering to beer and pizza consumers is the answer. But that's just me.
ReplyDeleteRebecca
It ain't just you, Rebecca--we too are dismayed at the state of contemporary "journalism" although we have a lot of respect for Spivey's reporting (we don't care about the beer) and Cooke's columns (though we don't care about the pizza either). It's sad--no, tragic--that these days people get whatever "news" they are predisposed to believing from TV and radio commentators who present themselves as "journalists." Although the NY Times isn't what it used to be, it's a lot better than anything else within reach.
ReplyDeleteJoe & Dottie
Bernice is a journalist of the best sort. The new "news" people should read and learn from her.
ReplyDeleteBernice, maybe you should start a school of journalism as it appears what is taught today doesn't seem to impress the importance of reporting facts.
I've been a journalist for eight years, and nothing I've ever written generated more phone calls, emails, letters and comments than this series -- and it wasn't even close. But more importantly, people at each of the places that we reviewed favorably said sales have been up like crazy ever since their reviews were published -- one of our top five even told us that he had been contemplating closing his restaurant before things turned around.
ReplyDelete...I got into this business to inform AND entertain readers -- not just one or the other -- and to make a difference like that. I am proud of the column and how many readers enjoyed it.
-Mark
I see something of an ironic slant in one pointing out what could be referred to (though of course one did not label it as such) as the "dumbing-down" of the news -- a twist to entertainment and/or lifestyle content over more "serious" fare -- and concluding it could possibly be a rational strategy ... while also critiquing a recent blog post by Dan, who clearly traffics in material that is more candy-coated than selected strictly on the basis of nutritional value.
ReplyDeletePerhaps readers are as interested in the mayor's alleged private life as they are in pizza and beer ...