Monday, February 04, 2008

Churnalism

A wonderful word; you immediately know what it means. From Nick Davies:

Where once journalists were active gatherers of news, now they have generally become mere passive processors of unchecked, second-hand material, much of it contrived by PR to serve some political or commercial interest. Not journalists, but churnalists. An industry whose primary task is to filter out falsehood has become so vulnerable to manipulation that it is now involved in the mass production of falsehood, distortion and propaganda.

Almost as good as Harold Rosenberg’s description of the media as “a herd of independent minds”.

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