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Ed Bigham's avatar

Eric,

Thank you for Press Run, your hard work over the years and this story.

At the 2018 White House Correspondent's Dinner, Michelle Wolf turned to the CNN table and quipped something about "breaking news," with the punchline being congratulations, "you broke it." I agree the news has been broken by the emphasis on speed, profits, ideology, and other problems inconsistent with good journalism. And let's not forget social media like Facebook and Twitter.

I believe many consumers are catching on, and moving on. But there must be reliable sources to combat the fatigue caused by wading through the nonsense.

That, in a nutshell, is why your work is so important.

Thanks again.

Ed Bigham

Pennsylvania

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dbtheonly's avatar

Mr. Boehlert,

I do not see this as a "police union conspiracy". And I do sympathize with the Atlanta Officer who was so overwhelmed that she thought her food was being poisoned at McDonalds just because it was delayed.

But this is a much larger issue.

It's the issue of the demand for speed as opposed to accuracy in "journalism". It's the claim of the term "Journalist" for anyone who tweets, blogs, or posts to youtube. How many times over (pick any time period you wish) have we seen stories retracted because they were under-sourced or over-hyped?

I will argue that Right Wing Media is inherently biased. I will argue that "Mainstream" Media is governed by profit motive and thus sensationalizes.

But I assert the main culprit is the race for speed. The desire for the "scoop". In the age of the internet; stories will circle the world in minutes. Thus reporters, trying hard to do a good job, are pushed to publish before someone else does. Mistakes are inevitable.

And I don't have an answer here.

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