Reply #19: Vicious circle.

[hay rick]

Fewer people read newspapers. With less revenue coming in, the newspapers cut costs by shrinking the newshole and outsourcing editorial work. The new, inferior product causes still more people to abandon newspapers. Repeat.

In my view, the greater problem with contemporary journalism is the ascendance of corporate cheerleading and self-censorship.

And yet worse. The final nail in the coffin of responsible journalism is the emergence of a citizenry that has been trained to view current events and issues as consumer items. The mission of consumer journalism is to entertain and to hold attention rather than to inform. Lacking both sources of reliable information and the habit of seeking out dispassionate accounts of the world around us, the people are easily manipulated...