I am intrigued by Ezra Klein’s ambition to provide a more contextual form of reporting. I agree with him that newspapers are less good at explaining why things are happening than they are at explaining what is happening. And I think Klein has done a good job at the Washington Post in focusing more on how things work than on just the surface-level of breaking news.
On the other hand, I am having some difficulty envisioning how, exactly, that Klein’s vision of journalism is all that different from what we’re already getting. We already have longer, more explanatory pieces of journalism than the typical front-page story. There are features, investigatory series, Sunday magazine length pieces, and wonky opinion pieces.
While it’s true that we are inundated with empty articles about who’s up and who’s down, and what the latest polls say, that doesn’t mean that reporters aren’t trying to explain how health insurance works or why the climate is warming or the reasons that we have gridlock in Washington. Some are better at it than others, and the public’s appetite for wonkish analysis is somewhat limited.
I’m sure that I will be an avid consumer of Klein’s work, but I don’t think my demographic is that big.
In any case, I wish him every success and I hope the scope of his vision is greater than the limits of my imagination.
Context will be their brand; they think thats what will distinguish them from everybody else. They want to be the go-to place for the bigger picture.
Richard Mayhew provides that context and education at Balloon Juice in relation to healthcare, and it is much appreciated. And John Cole said recently that he plans to add some front pagers related to tracking and other on-going issues.
On TV, I feel like I get that from UP, first with Chris Hayes and now with Steve K.
But you know, at some point in my life I decided to buy a house because I was so sick of having to have to have prospective renters have to meet and approve my dog before I could live in their rental houses. It may be as simples as Ezra and company wanting to get to set their own rules. More power to them.
Fracking, not tracking. And I can’t even blame autocorrect.
I don’t want to see longer stories, I want to see heavily footnoted news stories.
That was their original fucking job. If they can’t do it, they deserve to die at the hands of their shareholders and whomever else wants to feast on that rotting corpse.
Perhaps that is Ezra’s intent. For those that read BooMan and Progressive blogs we are accustomed to learning about the how and why but for the paper reading population they are still questioning ‘who are those blogger people and what credibility do they have’?
Ezra’s pieces focused on the how and why and he built a following on that appetite. This may not be a silver bullet towards creating more American brain cells but it does build on your/our demographic. One step at a time.
Whatever comes out from this endeavor, it is a welcome move that someone is at least attempting something different. I hope it opens up an era of substantial experimentation in journalism outlets.
There are long pieces of analytical news available that fill in the whys, but this is unique in that it appears to plan to be that way 24×7. They aren’t going to just occasionally run a full piece. It will be built into every article.
That sounds awesome to me. It sounds doable and long overdue. I don’t know what kind of details they are thinking about for their vision of this but to me it suggests they will have a strong educational focus. There are far too many news stories for which Americans simply don’t know basic history, geography, etc.
This also reminds me of some of the original vision for hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are often abused in the blogger and journalism worlds. Even the good uses aren’t consistent and disciplined enough to explore the full possibilities.
It also sounds to me that their context based idea could have the potential to replace the need for external fact checkers. The mode they talk about sounds like it could co-opt the need for fact checkers because that would be part of the context they deliver.
So, I’m excited to see what form this would take. If I had a degree in library science I would be sending them my resume.
Still, one of the biggest challenges for them will be where many news operations fail: Of the thousands of stories that could be covered each day, which of them will our staff work on? The latest disgraced pop star, Davos, or the thousands still dying needlessly in states that didn’t extend Medicaid.
The latest disgraced pop star, Davos, or the thousands still dying needlessly in states that didn’t extend Medicaid.
Will they address that the problem stems not only from the Koch Brothers, the DeVos family and Art Pope but also Bob Rubin and his many flunkies(Larry Summers, Rahm Emanuel and others)?