The BBC director of nations and regions has called for an end to “air-conditioned journalism“, which, simply put, is related to “hotel journalism” and “mouse journalism.”
Journalists should get out of the office. Reporting political and business leaders sprouting daily drivel may be what corporate media encourages, but this is not what journalism should be about. As John Pilger told me late last year:
“…Journalism is reporting from the bottom up, not from the top down. And it seems to me that once within the system, young journalists are groomed to report from the top down, not from the bottom up. Their scepticism is aimed not at power, but at people. You hear their contempt for readers, viewers and listeners; they call them apathetic and say they don’t care and all they’re interested in is the footy. They rarely disparage those at the top in the same way.”