According to a Politico report, conservatives are seeing proof of liberal bias in the media as reporters leave the journalism industry to take positions in the Obama administration.
“Obama bails out more media water-carriers,” conservative blogger Michelle Malkin wrote upon hearing that the Chicago Tribune’s Jill Zuckman is taking a job with the Obama administration.
Blogs at both the Weekly Standard and the National Review are pointing to a “revolving door” that spins between the media and the Obama administration.
Let’s get some perspective here:
Media General, which owns the Tampa Tribune, is forcing its employees to take 10 unpaid days off this year.
E.W. Scripps is cutting employee pay, freezing its pension plan and ending its 401(k) match.
The Tribune Co. is freezing salaries.
The Journal Register Co. has closed dozens of its small-town weeklies.
The St. Petersburg Times eliminated 200 employees from its workforce last August and recently announced that wage freezes will continue and more staffers will be offered buyouts.
Seven staffers, including me, were laid off from Creative Loafing just before Christmas.
I could go on and on, but why bother when there’s a website dedicated to the industry’s woes called — rather obviously — Newspaper Death Watch.
Journalists who are taking jobs with the federal government aren’t necessarily doing so because they agree with Obama’s politics. They’re avoiding the unemployment line. This isn’t about ideology; it’s about exchanging job insecurity for the ability to put food on the table and pay the rent.
Of the journalists flocking to government jobs, Pew Project Director Tom Rosenstiel says: “There’s no mystery here, and I don’t think the key to this is ideological as much as economic. The newspaper industry, in Washington in particular, is suffering mightily.”
It’s these damned blogs on the World Wide Web putting paid newspaper reporters out of business. I’ve been waiting to burn my pitchfork for just this occasion.
It’s these damned blogs on the World Wide Web putting paid newspaper reporters out of business. I’ve been waiting to burn my pitchfork for just this occasion.
@Heidi Just point the pitchfork away from me — I blog for free on my own site rather than for a media company whose blogger pay scale ensures I’ll never see a dime.
You have been very prolific since The Event. I commend you, Sal! Seriously. I can’t keep up with your posts! You should interview someone else whose been laid off in the newspaper industry. I’d love to read an out-of-work-reporter Q&A.
You have been very prolific since The Event. I commend you, Sal! Seriously. I can’t keep up with your posts! You should interview someone else whose been laid off in the newspaper industry. I’d love to read an out-of-work-reporter Q&A.