Dave Copeland, a columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, pulls back the curtain on journalists’ use of ‘experts’ in news reports. James Taranto, are you listening?
Because most in-the-trench reporters aren’t allowed to think for themselves, they rely on “experts” who can state their pre-determined opinion for them (don’t buy into all this objectivity crap; fairness is the only ideal any human can be held accountable for, and that’s difficult enough as it is).
Where do they find these experts? They go to ProfNet where they can connect with flaks who will earn their salary by getting their client mentioned on TV or in print. As a service to readers of davecopeland.com, I’m starting a new feature where I’ll be posting actual ProfNet queries from actual journalists. This is your chance to read the news before it’s news!
