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'Stubbornly Independent Journalists': Priceless

11/17/2008 by Gabriel Voiles

The Huffington Post publishes male critic Jeff Cohen's challenge (11/13/08) to "independent media outlets that contributed so mightily to the stunning election result":

With Democrats in control, will these outlets be guided by principle or just partisanship? Will they speak truth to power and expose corruption and injustice over the long haul--no matter who's in charge?...

From the start of the Republic, bold entrepreneurs (often sole proprietors like many of today's bloggers) stood up to censorship, jail and violence to sustain independent outlets that transformed our country....

Study any cause that has improved our country since and you'll find stubbornly independent journalists who challenged injustice in the face of ridicule and scorn from the mainstream media of their day.

Giving props to Rodger Streitmatter's 2001 Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America, in which many of "these journalistic heroes are chronicled," Cohen dispenses hard-won wisdom, culminating in "Stay stubbornly independent: This is the ultimate lesson."

See the retrospective in FAIR's magazine Extra!: "On the Shoulders of Giants: The Unbroken Tradition of Press Criticism" (1-2/06) by Robin Andersen

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Election, Media Criticism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “'Stubbornly Independent Journalists': Priceless”

  1. Doug Latimer Says:
    November 17th, 2008 at 3:30 pm

    And, of course, somebody needs to hold these outlets themselves accountable … which I try to do in my own inexpert way, here and at my dinky little blog.

    It's not a matter of "Gotcha!" or ideological purity or holier-than-thou. I want folks to tell me when I fuck up, and I assume FAIR, DN! et al want that, as well.
    That the response (when there's been any) usually hasn't validated that assumption is frustrating and worrisome to me.

    It's hard to understand why those who claim to be "progressive" often don't follow one of the most basic tenets of being so: Listening to and learning from each other.

    It's how we "progress" … and it's being a mensch, which is what this is all about for me, as much as I may fall short of practicing what I preach.

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