“Everything is rushed. Anita Dunn says, ‘When journalists call you to discuss a story, it’s not because they’re interested in having a discussion. They’re interested in a response. And the need to file five times a day encourages this.’ Instead of seeking context or disputing a claim, reporters often simply get two opposing quotes and file a he said/she said story.
Anita Dunn said “When journalists call you to discuss a story, it’s not because they’re interested in having a discussion. They’re interested in a response. And the need to file five times a day encourages this.” In saying, Dunn’s point is that journalists seek out each other and use each other not because they personally would like to hear each other’s point of view, but instead they need a response for whatever story they’re covering. The need to file five times a day brings a frantic rush to reporters and journalists alike resulting in news having no depth and the quality of the story suffers. The immediate access to news makes it hard for anyone to keep up with anything, be it journalists or just average people hearing about it. I think its interesting that the point of journalists calling each other is to get a response from one another, rather than having an in depth discussion about the topic. I also like the inference that Ken Auletta makes about the news stories/ journalists’ writing just turning into a “he said/she said” story that has no depth or meaning. Instead of actually putting time and effort into a piece, journalists have to get their writing done, and get it done as soon as humanly possible. This “need for speed” is increasing more and more as news is becoming more accessible to the populous. The immediate access and 24 hour news cycle means news must be updated constantly. For journalists and reporters alike, this non stop pressure leaves no lag time for a journalist who used to be able to take their time and put thought effort into a piece. Journalists used to be able to research and get solid facts before they started writing and published a piece, now they don’t even have time to get any for sure facts or even at least two sides of the story. I think that because of this our news is not always as accurate as we would like to think and we only see one side of an argument. News stories used to be well thought out and could be written with a lot of time put into them, not a quick writing session getting down the not always solid facts and calling a friend for a response.
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