Publish or Perish for journalists

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Dec 30, 2021 at 11:36

Dear Dr Pipes, This is regarding reader Bernarda's message about journalist Simona Foltyn's propagating Iranian views. Simona Foltyn is a Dubai/Baghdad based journalist who has also spent a significant amount of time in North Eastern Africa. Her work is backed by very respectable academic credentials. Any knee-jerk criticism of her would fall flat very quickly. But, You Tube is full of her videos and her videos seem to follow the standard pattern: propagating victimhood, not discussing the role that personal responsibility can play, and apologizing for war and violence.

This is pretty much the line followed by most of the media. I think the dictum often used in academic circles -publish or perish- applies to the profession of journalism also. In journalism it can even take a lower form: get-clicked or perish.

Under this dictum, modern journalists are more likely to cater to what people like to hear and not to what might be more important and truthful. If a journalist goes to Iran or Sudan and extolls the virtues of the US constitution, she is very unlikely to get clicked. If she advances the cause of worldwide victimhood, she is likely to be clicked.

Simona Foltyn is not an exception. Editorial input and advice in journalism is waning fast. Newspapers are disappearing from the planet. There is no advice. There is only feedback. And, feedback comes in the form of clicks and eyeballs.

When a bad point of view gets published and read, the only way out is to counter it with an opposing point of view and hope that the truth emerges. I thank reader Bernarda for writing about Simona Foltyn.

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