The greatest felony in the news business today is to be behind, or to miss a big story. So speed and quantity substitute for thoroughness and quality, for accuracy and context.
Carl BernsteinRead
Budget cuts are a sad reality in most newsrooms, and I am concerned that they reduce the collective muscle of journalists who are doing the expensive, and often dangerous, work of on-the-ground reporting.
Interpretation
Budget cuts in newsrooms threaten the quality and safety of on-the-ground journalism.
Jill Abramson's quote highlights the impact of budget cuts in newsrooms, suggesting that financial constraints diminish the effectiveness and safety of journalists who perform vital on-the-ground reporting. This work is often costly and perilous, and the reduction in resources may lead to a decline in the quality of news coverage, ultimately harming the public's access to important information.
In practice
During a speech at a journalism conference, I quoted Jill Abramson to emphasize the need for funding in media organizations.
The greatest felony in the news business today is to be behind, or to miss a big story. So speed and quantity substitute for thoroughness and quality, for accuracy and context.
I kept thinking, I'm not going to do political journalism, because there's no way to keep my principles and be a political journalist, so I'll edit a popular science magazine. This will be my salvation, and I'll emerge with my integrity intact. That didn't even happen.
The great concern is that year after year, rising numbers of journalists are being killed in pursuit of their work. They are increasingly seen as not being neutral but rather as combatants by one side or the other.
People really in the meat grinder of the front lines are not, for the most part, insured or salaried network correspondents. They're young freelancers. They're kind of a cheap date for the news industry.
Purchasing a story in order to bury it is a practice that many in the tabloid industry call 'catch and kill.'
If youre a reporter, the easiest thing in the world is to get a story. The hardest thing is to verify. The old sins were about getting something wrong, that was a cardinal sin. The new sin is to be boring.
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