Henry Blodget and the journalism prof (plus: his post about Jews)
ZDNet’s Tom Foremski sides with Henry Blodget in the little spat between the Business Insider founder and j-prof Dan Reimold. “Criticism of Business Insider’s largely lightweight journalism by journalism professors is valid only when its debated within the context of the economic reality of the news business,” writes Foremski.
Henry Blodget
There is simply not enough money generated by online advertising to be able to pay journalists to do the in-depth job we’d like to see, or that used to be common. And there is enormous pressure to do as little as possible in terms of original content, and original research. That’s simply the reality of the newsroom and my chief complaint about journalism professors is how distant they are from a real newsroom (or, even any newsroom at all, one admitted to me he had only spent 6 months as a reporter 20 years ago). …
Instead of criticizing the Business Insider editorial team for its lax standards, and its penchant for sensationalism and gratuitous use of racy photos, journalism professors should be railing against the failure of the industry to establish a business model that works, and rallying students to learn new techniques in producing quality journalism in quantity.
* The rise of the 17-hour journalist (ZDNet.com)
* Why Business Insider’s Henry Blodget is wrong (College Media Matters)
In other Henry Blodget news, Gawker’s Max Read says the BI chief was just “shooting the shit” when he asked on Tuesday, “Why do people hate Jews?” Alexandra Petri says of Blodget’s post: “I wish this were just careless, rather than obviously lazy. It’s like the author wasn’t even trying to have a real discussion. Fancy that.”
* “This post engendered a lot of empassioned responses” (Business Insider)
* Why do people hate Jews, wonders philosopher Henry Blodget (Gawker)
* Why do some people hate Jews and other stupid questions (WaPo)
