[GPSCC-chat] Counter-Inaugural Convergence

[Wes Rolley]

On 12/29/2016 2:17 PM, Spencer Graves wrote:
>       I believe that for-profit journalism model threatens humanity:  
> Robert McChesney and others have proposed citizen-directed subsidies 
> for non-commercial investigative journalism with transparent funding 
> that puts everything they produce on the web in the public domain.
>
>
>       My prospectus on this is available at 
> "EndowmentForJournalism.org".  I'm looking for collaborators to hep 
> launch this initiative.
>
>
>       What do you think?
>       Thanks,
>       Spencer Graves
Spencer,

I come at this from 2 different viewpoints.  The first is as an avid 
consumer of news.  Here I find myself thinking a lot along the lines 
followed by NYU Professor Jay Rosen at PressThink 
<http://pressthink.org/2016/12/winter-coming-prospects-american-press-trump/>. 
Here Rosen outlines what he thinks of the current situation (bad) in one 
post and then in a second on outlines the steps that he believes must be 
taken to restore trust in any media, whether for profit on not. Note:  
he does not consider his recommendations as a solution, only as steps 
that might help media organizations uncover a solution.

Secondly, I have  some experience on the edge of political journalism, 
assisting a high profile political candidate with media relations and 
doing a bit on the edge of investigative reporting in the same 
campaign.  The reporting involved connections between an incumbent 
candidate and Jack Abramoff.   I can tell you that it is damned hard 
work and requires significant financing to do this for any long period 
of time.  Along the way, I have developed a list of reporters, writers, 
etc. that continue to do an excellent job from within large media 
organizations..  The list include Chris Mooney (Washington Post), Juliet 
Eilpern (Washington Post), Michael Doyle (McClatchey Washington DC 
Bureau), Paul Rogers (SJ Mercury News), Dave Roberts (once with Grist, 
now with VOX).

I have a lot of hope for ProPublica <httpsL//www.propublica.org/> It is 
non-profit, but I am not sure about the bias of some writers, especially 
Andrew Revkin whose work at the NY Times was at best questionable in 
that his bias was never acknowledged but frequently was visible in his 
choices.  I felt that this was more Revkin himself than NY Times 
editorial mandates.  I make this point to underscore the fact that being 
non-profit is a guarantee of unbiased news.

Wes
-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, 
then you are wasting your time on this Earth" - /Roberto Clemente/
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