RE: [Leica] The perception of photographic quality & honesty of the media

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Eric,

SOME members of the press try to tell the truth, then some only tell their
"version" of it.  Wasn't it an ABC news program that dynamited a truck?
(oops forgot they are TV and not bound by the morals and objectivity us
print people try to honor.)

Unfortuantly when a "legitimate" outlet does something as unethical as this
it sticks to all members of the "press".


Never-the-less some members of the press are very ethical and honorable,
some are little better than a certian US President the media is in love
with.

Generalazitions are bad no matter which side of the fence you are on.


Harrison McClary
- --------
Okay...I can't stand it any longer:
1.  Most members of "the press" indeed tell the truth as they see the
truth - and that's all that anyone can every do.
2.  Most members of "the press" have chosen their career paths for a myriad
of reasons, having to do with wanting to observe the world, inform the
world, make the world a better place, find ego gratification, be paid to
write, shoot photos - or what ever it is they feel they were born to do -
and eat at the same time.
3.  No one enters "the media" to get rich. There are a handful of men and
women who get rich as media personalities, but the average reporter, editor,
photographer, is grossly underpaid given his or her level of talent and
ability.
4.  Do not confuse television entertainment programs, and print
entertainment publications, with "journalism" or "the media:" The CBS
Evening News is television journalism - Dateline is infotainment. The ABC
World News Tonight is television journalism - 20/20 is infotainment. And
it's down hill from there. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc.,
are doing journalism, People Magazine is entertainment.
5.  Journalism standards have slipped badly in the past decade,l with the
line between journalism and entertainment, particularly with the advent of
cable TV and the internet, becoming blurrier and blurrier. Much of this has
to do with the American public's fixation with scandal and new related to
sexuality, and its impatience and boredom with serious coverage of serious
issues. If you doubt this, ask yourself why the "real" Life and Look no
longer exist, but Fox News, MSNBC and Matt Drudge do.

6.  To speak of "the media" and make sweeping generalizations about those
who do journalism is the same thing as speaking of "button pushers" and
lumping all photographers together with the guy who takes the glad hand
shots for his employer.

And I spew all this having spent 23 years in American print journalism...

B. D.