Times flacks for Ikea

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu Apr 20 11:45:26 PDT 2000


At 01:05 PM 4/20/00 -0400, Enrique Diaz-Alvarez wrote:
>It's surpassed by their monumental ignorance. You'd think they'd pick up
>*something* at Columbia J-school, if only by osmosis. Apparently, it is
>considered normal for a US foreign correspondent not to know the language of
>the country they are assigned to. How do you report on a country where you
>can't watch TV, read the papers, listen to the radio or talk to 97% of the
>population?

But that is not just personal, but institutional as well. Foreign language illiteracy aside - a common problem among US-ers indeed - journalists who consistently submit stories rejected by the editors as "unsuitable" often find themselves re-assigned or even sacked. As Doug aptly observed, journalism is institutionalized idiocy rather than just low IQ of the reporters - albeit that is often the case prehaps as a result of self-selection, as obedient morons have a better chance of survival in the media environament than smart cookies.

The Nation's report a few months (?) ago on NYT science reporter Gina Kolata is a case in point. It is not that much that she cannot understand what she is reporting, but she deliberately does a hatchet job to make the story fit the NYT party line.

wojtek



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