Scripting News: Journalism in the aggregate

Thursday September 23, 2021; 10:09 AM EDT

I judge journalism in the aggregate. #
In other words, I say "journalism" did this or that.#
I do it that way for a number of reasons.#

They do act as a unit. You'll see basically the same stories on all websites and cable news stations. They often interview each other, which is pretty amazing if you think about it. #
To balance the way they treat online writers. They talk about us in the aggregate too. #
And to balance the way they view Facebook, with 2.7 billion users, they only consider one user when they talk about Facebook, as if we all are just Zuck-clones. I made a list of all the things Facebook is, and journalism rarely considers anything but the personality of one person when talking about "Facebook." Not that they really have any insight into his personality, btw. #
To tell journalism, to the extent that I can, how unthinking and automaton-like they are. There will come a day when computers do what they do, because they use so little of the intellect they certainly have. #

Last update: Thursday September 23, 2021; 10:02 PM EDT.

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