Journalists or Citizens?

Do people that choose to be journalists for a living have to abandon all of their personal beliefs in order to keep their journalistic integrity? More importantly, is the suspension of one’s principles even possible?

Well, this “Sophie’s Choice” of a predicament is becoming a reality for a couple of journalists who have chosen to join the ranks of the Occupy Wall Street protests that have sprung up all around the country.

Lisa Simeone, who has two radio shows on NPR, helped organize the Occupy D.C. rally, but once her employer (NPR) found out they promptly fired her from her job as host of Soundprint.

Soundprint is a political show that mainly deals with climate and political issues. Her bosses at NPR decided that her involvement tainted the unbiased reporting of the radio network. She was initially allowed to keep her second show that deals with opera performances, but NPR soon canceled it.

In addition, there is the story of Caitlin E. Curran a freelance radio host of a show on a Brooklyn based NPR show. Her station, WNYC fired her because she briefly attended the Occupy Wall Street 

protests in New York.

I understand that a journalist has to be objective and I understand that a journalist needs to be nonbiased, but does a journalist also have to suspend their role as a citizen of the country they reside?

Knowing what is right and what is wrong is what makes a good investigative journalist. Therefore, it is no surprise to me that journalists want to attend these protests. The Occupy movement is happening because the income disparity in the U.S. and the world has become too big to be ignored and of course, journalists are keyed-in to this sentiment.

If journalists are being fired for lapses in their integrity for supporting the Occupy movement, then all of the other journalists working for the Mainstream Media that blindly follow the directions of their corporate owners and sponsors should also be fired with the same justification. 

Dennis Ritchie

We recently studied the art of writing obituaries in my journalism class. We discussed many aspects of obituaries, including who gets one in the first place. The people that deserve this honor have to be prominent in society in some way. For good deeds or bad, we remember people for their most famous of deeds. Some deaths seem to occupy the press for weeks or months, like the recent death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. However, some people who have made remarkable contributions that affect us as people on a daily basis, hardy get a mention. Even a man who invented the language that made Apple Computers and Steve Jobs possible in the first place.

His name was Dennis Ritchie, and he was found dead in his New Jersey home on October 12, 2011, just one week after the legendary Apple visionary passed away. You see, Mr. Ritchie developed UNIX, and it was arguably the world’s first computer operating system. Bits and pieces of UNIX, and the genius behind it wound its way into most of the consumer electronics around today. Yes, even the iPhone, and that is why I stated that Ritchie made Steve Jobs possible.

The press however, went with the glitz and glam that resided in the celebrity star power of the Jobs juggernaut. In my opinion, the press really dropped the ball on a perfect teaching moment here. The press could have taught our children that success does not necessarily mean that you have a fan club that praises everything you touch, but they could have shown that a quiet and behind the scenes player can also change the world—like Ritchie did.  Keep in mind that I actually have no problem with the amount of coverage afforded the Jobs death; I just think a visionary like Ritchie could have been offered at least a mention on the national news.

The MSM vs. Occupy Wall Street

What is the mainstream media’s responsibility when it comes to covering the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City? So far, with a few small exceptions, the major television networks have been largely silent on the subject.

Occupy Wall Street, as described on one of the many websites devoted to it says it “is a people powered movement for democracy that began in America on September 17 with an encampment in the financial district of New York City.” This protest and ones affiliated with it around the country are getting plenty of play on social media sites like Reddit and Twitter. The protesters also have celebrities like movie director Michael Moore, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and The Yes Men in their midst, but the media has seemingly given this event a resounding pass.

“Let’s be clear on this.  Both conservative and ‘liberal’ media outlets are playing for the same team, said Marc Adler on Michael Moore's website. “They are all either big corporations themselves or they are owned and controlled by the six mega corporations which dominate the mass media.  As such, a populist revolution is against their interest.”

Recently, television media rightly devoted most of their airtime to cover the various Arab Spring protests that popped up around the Middle East. The networks even sent correspondents to the center of the sometimes-violent protests, but no such embedded coverage exists for the Occupy Wall Street protests by the mainstream media.

However, once again the power of the internet has come to fill the void left by the American media. 

Here, you can watch live streaming video and photos from the protests, as well as live text posts.

If the mainstream media outlets are curious as to why they do not appeal anymore to certain demographics in their old viewership, perhaps they should reconsider their hypocritical editorial stand when it comes to covering protests in America--or be made irrelevant in the process.