Thanks to Greg Stone for passing along this interview, available in full here on CNN, with Brown (The New Yorker, The Daily Beast) and Evans (London’s Sunday Times). I include an excerpt, below. Print journalism has seemed an elephant graveyard to me of late; but maybe I’m looking through the wrong end of the funnel.
Excerpt:
“AMANPOUR: And what about the effect on investigative journalism in
today’s world, not just in the new media world, the digital world that
you’re in now and pioneering, but also in the world where you see
resources slashed and certainly not enough rein given to investigations?
EVANS: Well, I’m sure Tina will agree with this. We both
constantly talk about this. And the fact is that, as soon as you stop
investigating and — that means finding things out which somebody wants
to conceal, you are going to face disasters.
Now, do you want some examples? The financial meltdown, not
discovered, not detected, not reported in the newspapers. The war in
Iraq, the real reasons for going into Iraq not investigated, not –
Katrina, to a lesser extent. So maybe Afghanistan, which you know a lot
about. So we’re actually living a life of what it’s like to be without
the press.
AMANPOUR: So, Tina, can the digital media actually take the place
of traditional media and all its resources and all its time and all its
original reporting?
BROWN: Well, let me, first of all, say, I think there is a bad rap,
in a sense, that digital media has ruined, as it were, journalism for
the mainstream media. I would say the mainstream media, so called, has
been ruined by the greed of management, because actually the greed of
management was what has disemboweled newspapers and, frankly, killed off
investigative reporting long before the digital world. I mean…
AMANPOUR: But now that we’re in the digital world — and you’re
absolutely right about the resources and the profit motive — what can
your media do to fill in if we’re not going to have traditional
investigative reporting, which is so vital in local and national…
EVANS: Let me say this. She did a marvelous piece on the Beast
which showed — which no newspaper did, an investigative piece of how
members of Congress were bribed by Fannie and Freddie, the housing
behemoths who led us into this terrible crisis, 126 (inaudible) and on
the Web site, the Daily Beast, they showed which congressmen got how
much money.
AMANPOUR: But do you think it can have the same effect, Tina, when
you look down the line?
BROWN: Well, I do. You see, I actually do think it can. I think
unfortunately we’re in this very scary transition right now from one
kind of media climate to another. It’s kind of like the industrial
revolution applied to media, so there’s a kind of scary sort of hiatus
right now, when the money isn’t — seem to be in either place.
I actually think that we will be able to protect investigative
journalism. I think financial models will be found to make Web sites
profitable enough, which will simply mean allocating resources. And
actually, I think there’s so much journalistic excitement amongst the
young now, so much desire, in fact, to cover stuff, and so much ease of
starting up things that I actually do think ultimately investigative
journalism can prosper.”
Tina Brown and Sir Harold Evans say digital world good for journalism (?!)
Thanks to Greg Stone for passing along this interview, available in full here on CNN, with Brown (The New Yorker, The Daily Beast) and Evans (London’s Sunday Times). I include an excerpt, below. Print journalism has seemed an elephant graveyard to me of late; but maybe I’m looking through the wrong end of the funnel.
Excerpt:
“AMANPOUR: And what about the effect on investigative journalism in
today’s world, not just in the new media world, the digital world that
you’re in now and pioneering, but also in the world where you see
resources slashed and certainly not enough rein given to investigations?
EVANS: Well, I’m sure Tina will agree with this. We both
constantly talk about this. And the fact is that, as soon as you stop
investigating and — that means finding things out which somebody wants
to conceal, you are going to face disasters.
Now, do you want some examples? The financial meltdown, not
discovered, not detected, not reported in the newspapers. The war in
Iraq, the real reasons for going into Iraq not investigated, not –
Katrina, to a lesser extent. So maybe Afghanistan, which you know a lot
about. So we’re actually living a life of what it’s like to be without
the press.
AMANPOUR: So, Tina, can the digital media actually take the place
of traditional media and all its resources and all its time and all its
original reporting?
BROWN: Well, let me, first of all, say, I think there is a bad rap,
in a sense, that digital media has ruined, as it were, journalism for
the mainstream media. I would say the mainstream media, so called, has
been ruined by the greed of management, because actually the greed of
management was what has disemboweled newspapers and, frankly, killed off
investigative reporting long before the digital world. I mean…
AMANPOUR: But now that we’re in the digital world — and you’re
absolutely right about the resources and the profit motive — what can
your media do to fill in if we’re not going to have traditional
investigative reporting, which is so vital in local and national…
EVANS: Let me say this. She did a marvelous piece on the Beast
which showed — which no newspaper did, an investigative piece of how
members of Congress were bribed by Fannie and Freddie, the housing
behemoths who led us into this terrible crisis, 126 (inaudible) and on
the Web site, the Daily Beast, they showed which congressmen got how
much money.
AMANPOUR: But do you think it can have the same effect, Tina, when
you look down the line?
BROWN: Well, I do. You see, I actually do think it can. I think
unfortunately we’re in this very scary transition right now from one
kind of media climate to another. It’s kind of like the industrial
revolution applied to media, so there’s a kind of scary sort of hiatus
right now, when the money isn’t — seem to be in either place.
I actually think that we will be able to protect investigative
journalism. I think financial models will be found to make Web sites
profitable enough, which will simply mean allocating resources. And
actually, I think there’s so much journalistic excitement amongst the
young now, so much desire, in fact, to cover stuff, and so much ease of
starting up things that I actually do think ultimately investigative
journalism can prosper.”