ArticlesDeep Throat‘s identity gets revealed, reminding people about the power of investigative journalism.
Media pundits deny that such investigative reporting could happen today. [Ref: ABC Radio & others]
At the
In such an environment, imagine you are the editor of a major daily paper in a major city, and an Walkley Award-winning journalist files the following story synopsis:
We peeked and pried into the life of an ex-patriat former-celebrity athlete. He wasn’t interested in giving us an interview – we’ve hounded him in the past – so we hassled his neighbours and all of the local shopkeepers. We found nothing… zip… zilch. Nothing to report except that “he likes a private life”, that he’s “very well-behaved” and “very nice”. Oh, and he reads the paper, drinks flavoured milk and has a large TV.
What do you do with this trash? Bin it? Chastise the reporter? Write a letter to the athlete to apologise for prying, and wish him the best of luck with his new life?
Surely you don’t run it as the main story on the front page of the Weekend Edition…
[Possibly short lived-link to an article by James Button in the Sydney Morning Herald]
On page 5, there was an article about an unfortunate woman being bitten twice by a dog.
I understand that “Dog bites man” isn’t considered front page news. But neither, Mr Editor, is “Man walks dog”.
Comment by Alastair on June 5, 2005
It’s nice to know that positive outcome bias doesn’t always apply to the MSM.