Speed, not substance

Now he can speak out. Retired Associated Press correspondent Mark Lavie says that journalists

Driven as they are by the Internet’s insatiable appetite for the latest flash, people who call themselves reporters are interested, he says, primarily if not exclusively in speed, not substance.

Mark Lavie, author of 'Broken Spring" and former AP reporter
Photo Credit: Facebook

Lori Lowenthal Marcus writes about what Lavie is doing in his retirement years:

Lavie provides direct testimony that journalists no longer even pretend that their job is to report facts. Instead, he’s been told by former colleagues, the job of the media is to advocate for those actors on the world stage that the journalists feel deserve support

“But that isn’t the job journalists are supposed to do!” Lavie cries. “The job of journalists is to take a significant story and make it interesting, by explaining it and putting it in context.”

Marcus asserts that

The Internet propels the news cycles into warp speed, with the concomitant loss of care, facts and professionalism.

Lavie recalls with pride that his position used to be, and it was one accepted by all of his earlier employers: “I may not be first, but I will be right.” For Lavie, accuracy and completeness were paramount. Those two qualities are now held in far lower esteem.

The seminal moment for Lavie came while listening to an AP “Town Hall” in 2004. Lavie told The Jewish Press, the person speaking – he thinks it was Tom Curley, and the timing is right, Curley was president of the AP in 2004 – said: “speed matters more than heft.”

Lavie knew then it was the beginning of the end.

Ideology and intimidation
Marcus writes:

The crazy, twisted reporting can be traced to two factors: ideology and intimidation. Most reporters want to identify with the underdog, which is how the Palestinian Arabs have been indelibly branded. In addition, the stringers upon whom the non-Arabic speaking foreign journalists must rely, all largely identify with the unquestioned position that the “Occupation” is the cause of all Arab suffering. Plus, most reporters and stringers alike prefer they and their families remain breathing, something much less likely if one reports anything negative about the Palestinian Arabs.

As a result of these two factors, even beyond the broader changes in journalism wrought by cutbacks and social media competition, nearly all the coverage of the Middle East sanitizes or ignores virtually any wrongdoing by the Palestinian Arabs, and, correspondingly, maximizes or fabricates wrongdoing by Israel.

Lavie is laser-focused on the Arab-Israel conflict, but he warns listeners that the twin demons of modern journalism, ideology and intimidation, are found not only with Palestinian Arabs, but for any totalitarian government, dictatorships or Third World leaders.

“It’s true, I’m pretty pessimistic,” Lavie admitted. “In fact, I will be on two speaking tours in the States, one in January and one in May. People have suggested I speak at journalism schools,” Lavie says. “But I told them no because I’d have to tell the audience they should all quit before they even get their degree.”

Read more here.
Lavie's blog is here, and it is going on my ever-expanding blogroll of must reads.