by L.B. Woodgate

Created on: August 10, 2010   Last Updated: August 11, 2010

Two years ago Chris Hedges with Truthdig.com commented that the death of newspapers was not about the rise of the internet but about “the rise of the corporate state, the loss of civic and public responsibility on the part of much of our entrepreneurial class and the intellectual poverty of our post-literate world, a world where information is conveyed primarily through rapidly moving images rather than print.”  His observations were heightened by the recent loss of some 6000 journalist and the dramatic fall in ad revenue for some of the country’s largest newspaper publishers like McClatchy, Lee Enterprises and Gannet Co.  The San Francisco Chronicle was losing $1 million each week. (The Internet Is No Substitute for the Dying Newspaper Industry, by Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com, 7/22/08.)

There is some merit to these arguments so let’s look at each one individually.

THE RISE OF THE CORPORATE STATE

Expressions like this often get passed off too easily by some people as a form of “socialist” expression venting anti-capitalist rhetoric, but a deeper look at this statement reveals some truth.  Newspapers were once started and run primarily by journalist, REAL journalist and not that kind that serve up soft news and look like they were models for Ken and Barbie.  The art of journalism was one where the information cited took sides with no one.  Facts were what they were and if those facts revealed inconvenient and uncomfortable truths then the affected parties and the readers of those facts would have to decide how to address the consequences they raised.

The written word was and still is a powerful tool and most journalists were careful to validate their sources, especially if what they printed would bring down powerful people.  Before some forms of judicial sanctuary existed to protect news sources, reporters who challenged established authority would often find themselves thrown in prison or ostracized.  This early form of journalism was authoritarian in nature and could be found in 17th century Europe “where publishing came under the prerogative and censorship powers of the monarch and church” and still exists today under totalitarian forms of government as in China and the former Burmese republic, Myanmar.

As civil liberties were wrenched from the monarchies and churches in Europe and in the newly formed American democracy, journalism took on more liberal and social responsibilities

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