When the March 2011 tsunami struck, leaving 19,000 people dead or missing and triggering the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it also submerged the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun’s presses. The 14,000-circulation paper had the biggest story of its 100-year existence on its doorstep, but no way of printing it. So its reporters did what monks in European monasteries once did with the bible by copying out their stories by hand.
Source : The Guardian
This isn’t merely the practice of journalists; rather, as Rosen points out, it’s virtually their religion. They simply do not believe that reporting facts is what they should be doing. Recall David Gregory’s impassioned defense of the media’s behavior in the lead-up to the Iraq War, when he rejected complaints that journalists failed to document falsehoods from Bush officials because “it’s not our role“ and then sneered that only an ideologue would want them to do so (shortly thereafter, NBC named Gregory the new host of Meet the Press).
Source : Salon
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