I’ve been campaigning for reform in newspaper journalism for years. If a journalist receives an award from a group of fellow journalists, that should be grounds for instant dismissal. These people should be writing and reporting for us, not for each other.
The incestuous nature of these journalism awards seems to be so much a given part of the profession that I had little hope my suggested reform would ever come about. But now there is hope!
This is from the Best of the Web at OpinionJournal.com
Takes One to Know One
A very entertaining Washington Monthly story on New York Times columnist Bob Herbert brings this comment from Andrew Sullivan:My two cents: once I know the topic of a Herbert column, I can predict every single self-satisfied, self-righteous platitude that is about to come. He’s also a terrible writer–there’s no character to his prose, never a felicitous turn of phrase. He’s the kind of columnist who gets journalism awards. Even when he’s right he’s so insufferably self-righteous and humorless it’s a pain to read him. So I don’t.
Aside from the bit about journalism awards, has there ever been a better example of the pot denigrating the kettle?
If a good way to insult a journalist is now to say, “He’s the kind of columnist who gets journalism awards,” I’d say big progress is being made!