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The symbolism is strong in this one

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* With the recent departure of Monique Garcia from the Tribune (and no word yet on whether she’ll be replaced), the Statehouse press room is darned near empty. This video taken near the press room yesterday pretty much sums up the situation…

I guess we could consider this an open thread about the state of journalism today.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 11:40 am

Comments

No worries, Sugar Daddy Dick and his faithful ward will fill the vacuum.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 11:51 am
IL state government and journalism have both become about equally pointless.

Comment by GOPgal Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 11:55 am
Not sure actual journalism exists anymore. I think journalism corrupted into activism.

Comment by Honey Bear Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:00 pm
It’s a shame that journalism is often confused with 24 hr cable soap operas.

Comment by BlueDogDem Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:03 pm
==No worries, Sugar Daddy Dick and his faithful ward will fill the vacuum==

This is the market at work buddy. The old journalism was biased towards protecting the status quo. The fact that you lost trust from the public has more to do with the quality of their work than it does with attacks from people like Trump.

Fake news is a real problem and it turns out people aren’t willing to pay for that garbage.

Comment by Phil King Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:07 pm
Phil King, you are just so tiresome.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:09 pm
Phil King must be the life of a party!

Comment by cgo75 Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:11 pm
Fake news? You mean Gateway Pundit or talk show hosts disguised as journalists (on Fox News)?

Unfortunately, news aggregators (Google, Facebook) have convinced some that journalism can be obtained for free.

Comment by Jocko Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:17 pm
–Fake news is a real problem and it turns out people aren’t willing to pay for that garbage.–

That’s why Proft and INN give it away.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:21 pm
Constitutional crisis? I believe it is. The appetite for media which satisfies our confirmation biases is growing. Journalism takes time, money and the investment of the consumers to become well-informed on issues. The almighty dollars of the oligarchy (looking at you Charles Koch, Cato etc.) will destroy democracy, which is–of course–the plan. Dr. Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains is my book club selection.

Comment by Reader Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:27 pm
Here is an article posted yesterday on the financial site Naked Capitalism regarding the redesign of the New York Times online front page.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/08/why-i-hate-the-new-york-times-front-page-redesign.html.

Essentially the redesign is removing reporters bylines from the front page. In order to see who wrote the article you have to click through the title.

IMO I think the reasons are to get you to view more advertising and the continued devaluing of journalism. NYT is probably saying “Who needs good writers when we can make up a name and have an algorithm write the story”.

Comment by Big Jer Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:37 pm
Reporters, even at the Trib, are as free today to write about and investigate current events…

The change is where they’ll be working next week after reporting something the owner doesn’t like.

Comment by PublicServant Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:53 pm
Just ask Dave McKinney

Comment by PublicServant Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:53 pm
The media consolidations of the past decades resulted in a paradigm shift in how news is thought of by company management. News coverage and journalism were always expensive to do well, but in better days, that was accepted: the news was a “loss leader” that never broke even but gave a network prestige and gravitas and respect, which then gave a bit of a halo to all the commercially profitable programming. They also had the quaint notion that using the public spectrum conferred certain responsibilities in exchange. Deregulation swept that all aside.

Now everything is about “shareholder value”, and so-called local news is generally terrible, superficial and incurious, because it emphasizes low cost and what’s easy to do, over actual news product. Local sports and weather and “feel-good” puppy stories are easier and cheaper to do than actual shoe-leather story research, so good-bye consumer watchdog reporting beats and statehouse beats, which might upset some advertiser. Citizens United didn’t help this either. What’s left of TV journalism has been co-opted by PR firms and political admen who see it only as a way to inject propaganda into unquestioning eyeballs. I weep for the future of media.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:56 pm
I’ve watched Statehouse reporters investigate and expose in Springfield for 50+years. I have seen them scare the hell out of politicians who then do the right thing because they know someone is watching. Phil King, I disagree.

Comment by jimbo26 Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 12:59 pm
===The change is where they’ll be working next week after reporting something the owner doesn’t like.===

When the former anchor for ABC 7, Ron Magers, “retired” he did an interview on Chicago Tonight with his former NBC co-anchor, Carol Marin.

Towards the end of the interview Magers pretty much says that one factor in his retirement was that “owners” , as Public Servant mentions, were increasingly influencing what news story was covered and how it was covered in the newscast.

Comment by Big Jer Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 1:05 pm
FYI and FWIW:

The video is of the corridor between the west elevator and the blue room.

The blue room is where news conferences in the Capitol are usually held. The offices reporters occupy - albeit in drastically reduced numbers from just a few years ago - are elsewhere in the basement.

The crickets have been sharing space for quite a while.

Comment by Dave Dahl Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 1:05 pm
Dave, I said it was near the press room. It is.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 1:09 pm
Is Newsweb hiring?

Comment by City Zen Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 1:30 pm
Agree the symbolism is strong.

For almost four years, Bruce Rauner has gotten a mostly free pass by Illinois tv/print media, inflicting real pain in the lives of a lot of working families and vulnerable people — without much of any backlash. The Rauner administration’s conflicts of interest, corruption and mismanagement seem to rarely spark press or public outrage.

Possible explanations?

1. Fewer reporters.
2. The “both sides” ethic that moves journalists to strain, often beyond reason, to find ways to zap Ds and Rs “equally”.
3. They fear he will retaliate against them, as he did to Dave McKinney, and as Trump does on the regular to CNN etc.

It’s very very sad to observe these things.

Comment by Sugar Corn Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 1:42 pm
Pressroom you say.
I thought this was freshman orientation at SIUC.

Comment by Leigh John-Ella Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 1:43 pm
In all fairness, the cricket “writes” for Proft.

Comment by Leigh John-Ella Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 1:51 pm
On Metra during my morning commute, I am usually the only person reading an actual newspaper. I read the Sun Times in the morning and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin on the way home. Certainly, there must be people reading something on their devices, but actual, physical newspapers are rare. Not blowing smoke up your dress Rich, but you are one of the few journalists that have credibility. There are some fine journalists but the numbers keep dwindling. Because you have your own site, you have complete control. Agenda driven outlets have damaged the credibility of some of their contributors. Sadly, an embedded news corps with a deep understanding of the legislative process and the contacts to delve deeper on topic will soon be extinct.

Comment by Trapped in the burbs Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 2:09 pm
Pittsburgh, apparently, is now without a paper, or about to be, as the paper is going the internet way. if you love the news, buy a physical paper, even on your travels. some of the best finds are small local papers, if they are still around. the exchange of information is important. more sources the better.

Comment by Amalia Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 2:12 pm
How can they be enemies of the people if no one is there…or are the crickets the new enemies of the people?

Comment by d.p.gumby Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 2:15 pm
Paper?
I only use that when I’m out of my flushable wet wipes.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 2:16 pm
–Paper?
I only use that when I’m out of my flushable wet wipes.–

I knew that’s where you got your information.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 2:20 pm
Can’t they just let Charlie Wheeler’s PAR students move in? Most of them end up there anyway, this just speeds up the process.

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 2:31 pm
if you love the news, buy a physical paper, even on your travels. some of the best finds are small local papers, if they are still around. the exchange of information is important. more sources the better.

On this subject, Amalia is 100% correct.

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 2:38 pm
While there may be fewer print and broadcast, digital has grown. You should still have some company in there; perhaps slightly less groomed, but still doing their jobs.

Comment by A guy Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 4:21 pm
–While there may be fewer print and broadcast, digital has grown.–

Huh? Traditional broadcast and print outlets are also the main digital sources in Illinois.

Have you not noticed the links that are provided here every day?

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 4:50 pm
Sad to see. And sadder to think what forces have conspired to clear out the press room.

I’m of the mind that we need fewer reporters in D.C. and more resources covering state legislatures.

Comment by John Gregory (ex-IRN) Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 6:05 pm
I am having a serious debate with myself about cancelling my subscription to the Peoria Journal Star. It is not because of the content, or even the lack of content as the paper gets smaller and smaller. My issue is that the subscription now costs me over $700 a year. That is a lot for something that, unfortunately, has less and less information in it.

Comment by G'Kar Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 6:08 pm
The vestigial Blue Room in the basement isn’t half as good as the old one was. Besides being too tiny for more than 3 cameras, it has terrible sound and lighting issues. For being a supposed “hushed space” to better hear the newsmakers speak, you can hear everyone’s conversations on the other side of the glass, clear as day. You can even hear traffic from outside.

Also, and more to the point, the newsmakers have, for years now, preferred to hold their pressers elsewhere, either other spots in the building or outside of it altogether, not just because the Blue Room’s a flop, but because it’s static and boring… they like to make the background of the event visually interesting and relatable to the subject of the speech-making, and so do the events out in their districts, instead. So no wonder the “Blue Room Jr.” is laying fallow.

Instead of the newsmakers coming to a mutually agreed spot convenient to the journalists that have bureau offices in the Capital, the journalists now chase the newsmakers out in the field.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 9:13 pm
G’Kar,
Call them and ask for a reduced price. If they don’t respond with one — which they often do — go ahead and cancel. Chances are you will quickly get a phone solicitation inviting you back as a new subscriber at a reduced rate.

My mom is in the exact same situation after subscribing to PJS for 50-plus years. She said something to her friends and they all said they called, said they weren’t going to pay that much and haggled. Paper gave them reduced rates.

Worth a try.

Comment by Leigh John-Ella Friday, Aug 31, 18 @ 9:24 am
“I read the Sun Times in the morning and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin on the way home.”

I love this guy

Comment by Dan Vock Friday, Aug 31, 18 @ 9:25 am