The Four Recent Losses in Journalism and Why It Matters

If there were ever a time to write about journalism, this is it. Four of the most respected journalists in the biz are either gone or in the process of leaving-- and all are exiting on top or while falling down.
The recent losses of journalistic leaders has caused me to look back at the steps that led me to become fascinated with the adventure, the curiosity, the writing, and the intellectual challenges of both the people and ideology that make up the journalism profession.

When I was a kid I looked up to two types of people who I thought were the apotheoses of human achievement: astronauts and professional athletes. This made sense to me, since both were easily understandable to a kid who might not have full reasoning powers, but can comprehend both adventure and the easily graspable idea of winning and losing.

Beginning in in my late teenage years throughout my 20s, that focus shifted a with a sharp sense of urgency to musicians. I began asking myself, "What's the use of working towards self-realization if you aren't able to actively participate in the beauty of the creative process--such as music?" And with that I just fell head over heels in love with bluegrass and was determined to become an active member of that art form.

But now, as I get through my 30s, there's been another question that has replaced that one: "How do you fully participate in human creativity if you don't actively try to understand the complexities of the world and people around you?" The great writers, thinkers, and creative class who have had such a major impact on our culture typically have a knack for understanding the complex layers of the individual, society, and culture. Dylan, Guthrie, Twain, and currently even Jon Stewart all immersed themselves into American culture and the plight of the lower and middle class working people. All of these men were dedicated to using both experience and interactions to tell the beautiful and heartbreaking stories of the American people.

Written word, spoken word, satire, and music all have the power to bring change. Journalists might not have the same enduring legacy as authors and musicians, but they still play a significant part in all the major cultural shifts; many have been killed as testimony to that.




Musicians, writers, and journalists all tell existential stories about human nature, just in different formats. Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, investigative reporters such as Taibbi, Hersh and Woodward, and satirists such as Twain and Stewart have all effectively brought more cultural and social shift to this country for the under-represented than most politicians.


Of all the hits that we've seen, Brian Williams is the messiest and most complicated. We've seen the most-watched news anchor of our current time possibly lose his job over a story that had nothing to do with the news. What it does concern are the ethical implications of a public who wants our public figures, politicians, and news anchors to also be entertainment celebrities. Williams walked that line better than anyone, but when it came time to creatively embellish stories, as every one of us does, the online punditry and twittersphere smelled blood and came in for the kill.

There was something that bothered me about this whole deal. Mostly because it was not necessarily about some newfound national desire for absolute "truth" in the media. Not when Fox News tells the truth a reported 18% of the time and is the #1 cable news outlet. No, there was something else going on and I think it was our bloodthirsty appetite to see a good man get torn down.

I saw very few people concerned about the trust that Williams had broken as the "Lyin' Brian" memes caught fire. There was much more of an engaged bloodsport spectacle of people feeling like they get to be a part of this action, like a crowd gathering at the gallows all clamoring to help pull the lever. If bringing a bad person down feels good, bringing a good one down is even better.

Jon Ronson wrote about the spectacle of public shaming in the New York Times:

"As time passed, though, I watched these shame campaigns multiply, to the point that they targeted not just powerful institutions and public figures but really anyone perceived to have done something offensive. I also began to marvel at the disconnect between the severity of the crime and the gleeful savagery of the punishment. It almost felt as if shamings were now happening for their own sake, as if they were following a script."

Ronson followed several people who had been publicly torn down over offensive tweets, one of which was a young PR girl, Justine Sacco, where he describes the snowballing energy that drives our desire to participate as a virtual group in actions we would not do alone.

"But perhaps she had now come to understand that her shaming wasn’t really about her at all. Social media is so perfectly designed to manipulate our desire for approval, and that is what led to her undoing. Her tormentors were instantly congratulated as they took Sacco down, bit by bit, and so they continued to do so. Their motivation was much the same as Sacco’s own — a bid for the attention of strangers."

While that level of accountability is required for investigative journalists to keep massive institutions in check, it is not required by the public for our news sources-- remember that Fox News is the #1 cable news program--and that is ultimately why the national outrage over the Williams story did not feel either genuine or equal to the crime.

Just a few shades over in the industry, where a single embellishment or mistake can ruin a career, we have the great investigative journalists of our time, Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone. In a testament to fastidiousness, he had trouble getting the RS fact checkers to sign off on one of his most famous lines, where he described the investment bank Goldman Sachs and its role in the financial crisis:

“The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”



Taibbi: "I remember is the fact checkers coming to me at one point and they almost killed the line because squids don’t have blood funnels. I was trying to explain that was part of what made it funny, but they were very insistent. I had to go over their heads on that one."

Such scrutiny is required for investigative pieces because one factual error can wreck the entire work. If Goldman Sachs can find one substantiated error, falsehood, or lie then that's all they need to cast doubt on the entire article. Taibbi and RS know this (which makes the UVA rape article both out of character and somewhat unforgivable) so they task their fact checkers to go over every single sentence. That is why one writer is able to take on what is arguably the most powerful corporation in the world with both truth and substance.

On the other side, we have two of the most respected journalists of our time, Bob Simon and David Carr, suddenly pass away; while it might not feel like much to most people, these two were giants in the industry.

Much like with Stewart, you did not want to be caught in David Carr's crosshairs. While one was based around comedy and satire, the other was soberingly serious; but both raised the bar for media practices through their hard work and most importantly, intellectual honesty. The ire of either of these two meant you were caught either being lazy, or worse, dishonest, and in today's profit driven twitter speed news cycles we need more of these watchdogs, not less. Here's a great interview Carr did with Terry Gross on her show "Fresh Air".

Jon Stewart has had such an effect on news media that just his announcement of his impending departure sent the internet into such a frenzy of remorse posts that he opened the following day's show by asking, "Ummm....did I die yesterday?" Satirist, comedian, watchdog, voted "most trusted news-person"--I don't think anyone has been able to properly describe the impact Stewart has had on our current media landscape. Many have tried, and you can pull up countless posts that all do a great job of discussing various effects.

We love the arts for so many reasons, one of which is they give us a deeper insight into the human condition and experience. But strip away the smoke and mirrors of entertainment and we have a class of people who overflow with curiosity and bravery, and are able to understand the hugeness of the world and bring it to our doorstep. The older I get, the more I've begun to appreciate both the ability to do this as well as the western philosophy of freedom of speech that allows it. Criticism and cynicism aside, David Carr was adamant that the golden age of journalism is not necessarily behind us.

--Brian Paul Swenk

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Breaking my sports addiction and becoming the person I want to be.

Life should be about transitions--all types of transitions--slow burning hidden transitions, major upheaval transitions, focused conscious transitions, blind-siding transitions.   If you aren't actively engaged in some type of transition, either physically or mentally, then I do recommend finding one and proceed to stomp on the gas, ram and jam the gears and go into it Thelma and Louise style.  

There are no better examples of engaging life to the fullest than the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.  At any point in the day they could put on the hat of:  lawyer, scientist, farmer, philosopher, psychologist, writer, historian, statesman, politician, revolutionary, naturalist, and many more.  They were infinitely curious and stayed completely engaged with the world around them, and they achieved the ultimate goal of not living forever, but creating something that lives forever.  I look up to these types of people and do my best to consistently explore new cracks for light that I might not find unless I'm willing to become enveloped by the darkness.  Writing a blog post was scary as hell, and if I didn't have Daniel Smith and Jenny Viars encouraging me I would not have done it one my own.  Maybe only 100 people will ever read it, but it's there, it's recorded in my history; it's a small mark in a big world that I can claim.   

Lately, I've become aware of a slow burn transition that I wasn't fully aware of for the last few years; but I can remember flashes of realization and insight that, when pieced together like train tracks through the Foggy Mountains driven with the intensity of a banjo breakdown fury, can lead to one unexpected destination.   The decision to let go of being a spectator in the world of professional sports and use that time and energy to become engaged with activities that produce positive tangible experiences is a big transition for me, and I am finally to the point of not only embracing it but even arguing the benefits of it.  

But then the whole idea of making a point of this becomes another issue, because on one hand I really enjoy seeing people around me living life to the fullest, and we are here to help each other (in my Prince voice) In This Thing Called Life.  People around me inspire me to write, eat better, travel more, read more, exercise more.  On the other side of the token,  people tell me that we inspire them, at a beginning level, to learn an instrument, or even a more advanced level, get more serious with their band and write more tunes and book shows more aggressively.  Inspiring anyone to go down a new path and put forth energy into what is obviously a dream or goal plays a huge part in getting us through the tough days.  It is moments like that that have the power to replace having financial security. 

On the other hand, almost all of my family and best friends are sports fanatics; hell, my grandmother was buried in a Carolina Blue coffin because she loved UNC basketball so much.  Who am I to tell them that they are wasting their time, energy, and money on something that doesn't give a respectable return on invested time and energy in this grand experience of living on earth?  The libertarian side of me says that people have the freedom to do whatever makes them happy and I have no business interfering.  If someone wants to spend every free hour of their life smoking pot and playing Xbox games then that is their choice. Go for it...knock yourself out buddy.  (In my jersey accent) You Do You, I Do Me!

So what started as me freeing myself from the highly addictive nature of spectator sports becomes an internal debate on whether I should make a public case of it, throw it out there, start the debate, possibly offend someone....or instead, just go hiking. 

But I like debates, I like in-depth conversations, I like pushing myself and others, I like making arguments for the sake of expanding my own knowledge of the idea, and at the end of the day I can only conclude that spending so much of our limited time on this earth watching professional athletes compete in contests that have no bearing in our daily lives is just a huge waste of time.   There's really no other way to say it.  If you're a parent and you traded all the hours that you spent on sports and dedicated every single minute to activities your child enjoyed then you will look back at your life and think it was a great decision.  No one has spent the last days of their lives being thankful for the countless hours in front of a TV watching football games...ever.

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty well-preserved body. Rather, one should skid in broadside, thoroughly used-up, totally worn out, and proclaiming, "Wow, what a ride!"  

There's really no argument to the contrary, other than, "I do it because I like it."  I had a good friend say this about smoking cigarettes and I realized that the libertarian side of me had no debate for it.  It is both the best and worst argument that can be made.  The beginnings of this great country were founded on that type of freedom, so how can we argue the contrary?  It is such an amazing argument and powerful idea that it can reach all the way down to the bottom, to homeless crackheads--they too do it because they like it.  Earl Scruggs played banjo because he liked it, and heroin addicts shoot heroin because they like it.  Same justifiable argument, different results. 

So fuck it!  If you like it, then do it, and know that I both care and don't care at the same time.  That is coming to terms with the rich complexity of life, and not settling for the superficial simplicity.

As with any addiction, something has to take its place. For me there are two main interests that I have started to develop with an excited focused energy: hiking and the outdoors; and the love of journalism and with it the exploration into the nooks and crannies of human experience.

Just one example of how amazing this new interest is for me; last night on the 14 hour journey back to NC I listened to an episode of the beautiful NPR show "This American Life: hosted by Ira Glass."  I picked out a show that was based on the culture of conventions and had 3 parts to the story.  The first "act," as they call them, was about a convention based around a cult TV show called "Dark Shadows."  Think of a Star Trek convention but way more underground.  The story was light-hearted and quirky, but interesting, and got into the emotions of someone coming to terms with the fact they are completely fascinated with something that few people on this earth will ever even be aware of.  The second act was based around an intrepid dishwasher basically "crashing" a convention of restaurant owners--the people he spends his life working for--and again, it was also light and amusing and gently explored the dynamic of business owners and the people at the very bottom of the ladder. Something we've all experienced at one time or another. 

But then we got to act three.  It was based around two people meeting when their respective conventions were in the same space.  John Barlow (lyricist for the Grateful Dead) tells a story of being at an Apple Computer convention and meeting and falling in love with a woman who was attending the psychologist convention. Suddenly 2/3 of the way through what was supposed to be a light-hearted story, it just turns on a dime, and we find ourselves hearing one of the most amazing love stories that oozes depth, emotion, and also tragedy.  Here is a story so powerful that a man who didn't believe in the idea of individual souls completely altered not only his perspective but his daily engagement with other human beings.   As I'm driving and listening to this story my heart is just gripped as he describes his experience, and I think to myself, "This is it!"  The power of a story to connect you to the near-universal desired experience of connecting to another human being on the deepest level imaginable.  Just look at what has stood the test of time.  The works of Shakespeare?  Or the records of who won the countless Roman games in the Amphitheatrum Flavium at the end of the empire?   The process of journalism -which at its finest moment is just focused curiosity of the human experience- peels back the layers of superficiality that we layer onto life to insulate our hearts from pain and hurt, and celebrates all the nuances that both connect us and differentiate us.  Personally, that excites me much more than overtime. 

You can listen to the particular episode here. 

I believe that most of us want depth, beauty and connection, as well as top mental and physical health in our lives; and for me personally, breaking my connection to the outcome of games and focusing on what really matters to me was a monumental transition that I needed.  Or more simply, it is my path to become the person that I want to be.

Explorer Ben Saunders has an exellent explanation of why we need to get outside.






A beautiful Ted Talk titled "Before I die I want to..."