Thursday, March 27, 2008

Michael Smith's blog

Thanks to Adam, Mamam Poulet and Ronan. This is the link for Michael Smith's blog.

It's a juicy blog, and very opinionated. In the most recent posting, he takes a broadside against the lack of investigative journalism. There's an element of truth in some of what he is saying but there's also a bit too much cleverality. Besides, Primetime Investigates can still produce whomper of investigations and you still get occasional magic investigations in newspapers (they are really costly and sap resources and in the age of 'churnalism' are getting harder for hard-pressed editors to justify).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'd agree with his aggravation at the lack of investigative journalism but it is a costly affair.

It's worthwhile, though. If a publication or outlet could gain a reputation for breaking stories, big or small, on a regular basis it would become a "Can't miss" product and readership/viewership would sky-rocket.

Prime Time Investigates is an example of this as it consistently sets the agenda and is unmissable for anyone interested in news. Sometimes the stories get a day in the news cycle, some times years (Leas Cross being an example of the latter) but they're always agenda setting.

I can think of a couple of journalists who would be producing absolute dynamite if given the time to do so - some are already producing pretty strong stories outside of the day-to-day agenda on a weekly basis.

I think Village was unfortunate in losing/having to let go of Frank Connolly just as it went monthly too - that was the perfect setting for him and just after he went to the Daily Mail he started churning out strong stuff on Bertie and the Tribunal, which is exactly what Browne has been keen to focus on lately.