Dawnsinger

Here's coverage of one of the panels I attended recently, hosted by Media Giraffe, on the future of journalism, the internet, and so-called "citizen journalists."  This is quick coverage of a panel that included Jeff Jarvis, Helen Thomas and other luminaries.  And me, courtesy of The Editor's Weblog, an industry news site:

Read the coverage 

Helen Thomas drew both applause and flak for her bitter attacks on the Bush White House.  No comment on that, except that the rhetoric tended to pull the conference away from the topic at hand.  On topic, though, she slapped bloggers and "citizen media" - noting that not everyone with a laptop is a real journalist.  Indeed.  And not everyone with an SPJ membership or a press pass is a real journalist. And I'll respond - and did - that while our "citizen reporters" were giving some of the fastest and real-life storytelling about Hurricane Katrina, the professional media was in many cases giving their professional seal of approval to wildly inaccurate stories.

The mark of a professional journalist - if I can distill our code of ethics - is objectivity and a passion for presenting the truth, all the truth, and nothing but the truth, as much as that is humanly possible.  And by objectivity, I mean a deliberate, professional act of duty . . . not the absence of a point of view.  Too many  who call themselves journalists take the position that there is a world view commonly held by all wise people - which of course includes themselves - and that it is their duty to use their pulpit to bend the world to that point of view . . . to think for the common citizens, who are too dull and deluded to think for themselves.   Or as Ms. Thomas lamented - and I'm paraphrasing - we keep writing story after story, and the foolish people just keep voting wrong.  There is nothing wrong with people who stand in pulpits - but the person standing in one is an evangelist . . . not a journalist.

I suspect many elite journalists don't know any "real" people.  It should be a requirement.