Romenesko Memos
Laurie Garrett writes in her farewell memo to Newsday colleagues: "All across America news organizations have been devoured by massive corporations, and allegiance to stockholders, the drive for higher share prices, and push for larger dividend returns trumps everything that the grunts in the newsrooms consider their missions. ... Leading journalists have tried to defend their mission, pointing to the paucity of accurate, edited coverage found in blogs, internet sites, Fox-TV and talk radio. They argue that good old-fashioned newspaper editing is the key to providing America with credible information, forming the basis for wise voting and enlightened governance. But their claims have been undermined by
Jayson Blair's blatant fabrications,
Judy Miller's bogus weapons of mass destruction coverage, the media's inaccurate and inappropriate convictions of
Wen Ho Lee,
Richard Jewell and
Steven Hatfill, CBS' failure to smell a con job regarding Bush's Texas Air Guard career and, sadly, so on." (Read Garrett's Pulitzer-winning
stories.)
