Comments on: How Sports Illustrated Nailed A-Rod, and Why It May Not Happen Again

By: Peter Kafka

Peter Kafka — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:30:21 +0000

1) Newspapers used to be fantastically profitable operations due to their monopoly control of local advertising markets. Now that this has disappeared, and that the papers owners are drowning in debt, papers can’t support the large payrolls they once did. What else do us dummies need to know?
2) Great to hear. Lay them out, please.
3) I can think of a lot of things that were developed since, say, 1972. It’d be a shame if we have to go without them.

By: Michael Masnick

Michael Masnick — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:42:09 +0000

No offense, but many of those “currently in the field” seem to be a bit clueless about basic economics concerning the production of what they do.

While newspapers are struggling right now, there are alternative business models that can and will support investigative reporting.

Also, it’s worth noting that “investigative reporting” is a modern phenomenon. It really only came about in its current form in the 70s. So it’s not exactly part of the “grand tradition” of journalism.

By: Peter Kafka

Peter Kafka — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:40:06 +0000

Of course there will be paid journalists. But ask anyone who’s currently in that field: The number of us who are going to get the resources to do the work that Roberts and co. did for this story is a small group that’s going to get smaller. Some people are fine with that — if the market wanted in-depth investigations (or whatever energy-intensive work that doesn’t reliably produce a high ROI), it would let us know, etc. Other folks, like myself, will be sad to see them dwindle away.

By: Michael Masnick

Michael Masnick — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:37:33 +0000

Wait, what? At what point has *anyone* suggested that there won’t be any paid journalists out there?

You seem to have set up a nice strawman here.

By: Eric Welch

Eric Welch — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:31:23 +0000

Citizen journalist mike jay has quite a counterpoint there.

And yet the original point stands. I once helped take on the FDIC when, during the farm crisis of the 90s, they were forcing farms into bankruptcy. They rejected alternative financing from the farmers who owned the properties with an end result of the FDIC foreclosing on those family farms.

Then those FDIC officials who forced the farms into foreclosure turned around and sold those properties for pennies on the dollar to a corporation called Redwood (as best I recall). Redwood then resold those farms for massive markups.

Guess who ran Redwood?

Yep, former FDIC officials.

I only played a minor roll in uncovering that scandal. It took a lot of groundwork by the reporters and support from the editorial staff and owners of the newspaper to get the job done.

We could only do it because we were part “big media” that had the resources to dedicate to the pursuit of a very important, if less than sexy, story.

By: mike jay

mike jay — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:57:40 +0000

While we are all praising Selena Roberts for her journalistic skills we should also remember her 2nd grade reporting on the Duke Lacrosse team. She completely convicted the players the coaches and the school – did she ever apologize, print any sort of article about the true facts – absolutely not. She is Dave Kingman – sure she hit a grand slam this time – but most of the time – she strikes out as an average journalist.