The NYT goes all 'journalists know better than readers' again

One thing that I really enjoy about many of the Times writers is their willingness to interact via e-mail about stories they have written.

I never write them in a critical manner but do write with perhaps a question or two about something they have written for clarification. Always stuns me to receive a pretty fast response even to stories that are still in middle of a news cycle.

Kind of refutes that idea that Times writers think they know better than their readers.

 

Yeah, this is what I meant.

 

No where else to put it so I 'm going with it here but how does the Dowd thread get locked? I don't mean any disrespect to the Mods who have a thankless job but this time I think they pulled the plug to early on an important and thought provoking discussion.

That was a very good informative discussion with no real political infighting unless I did not notice some posts taken down.

Pretty soon we are going to be left with a discussion on the merits of buying an extended warranty on a Bic pen and a baseball running thread.

 

I myself wouldn't buy a baseball running thread

 

Is it possible that Dowd is the new Lupica and politicked lobbied to have the thread removed/locked? She's wily.

EDIT: To remove potentially offensive word.

 

You must have not gotten the memo:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-19/news/ct-talk-huppke-obit-facts-20120419_1_facts-philosopher-opinion

 

I remember reading that and laughing out loud. Great satire. But, at the same time, it rings very true, especially in election seasons.

 

It has been my experience that the reporters do know better than the readers as they often have an imperfect view of the facts or do not see the big picture.

The only time this has been consistently wrong is in religion coverage and there, the readers are almost always right.

Weird, but not really.

 

I would argue that the onus on reporters to be accurate, fair and unbiased is greater than it has ever been in newspapers. The gatekeepers and safety nets have all been laid off or furloughed. The reporter is expected to produce copy without errors or scrutiny. So, yes, the journalism landscape has changed. Reporters need to be more vigilant and detailed than ever before. But they aren't perfect and mistakes will be made.

 

I think that a lot of readers will have found the column really interesting. I also think that many other readers will quickly skip over it.

The headquarters of the New York Times is in Manhattan. However, editions of the newspapers are also printed throughout the country, and reporters for the Times are based in various corners of the globe.