Aibu to be ashamed at the quality of what passes for 'journalism' in the UK now?

[Baconyum]

The scum and Hillsborough
News of the world hacking
The weight stuff and DM and others basically copying and pasting threads from MN
Murdoch having a virtual monopoly
Mainstream media not showing truthfully the extent of protest against the govt (and I don't just mean Tories!)

Perhaps I'm too idealistic bit in my mind a good journo/journalism means investigating and researching thoroughly, considering all angles of a story, verifying before starting as fact.

I'd be particularly interested to see posts from current/former journos.

Fecking auto correct

The wright stuff
But
Stating as fact

MN can we PLEASE Get an edit button?!

Two words - Mazher Mahood.

Some of the journalism has been like this for years.

So many journalists have been laid off that a lot of papers (as we used to call them) are just pasted-in press releases now. Local papers worst of all. We have a local issue that desperately needs a good investigative journalist but all we get are printouts from the Town Hall.

And don't talk to me about photography. There are hardly any employed photojournalists any more, national papers that would have had ten on staff and dozens of stringers (favoured freelances on a retainer) now have one or two at best, then a subscription to one of the agencies where they buy images by the thousand. They fill their pages with readers' freebies - where the glory of a byline (if you're lucky) is meant to be enough reward.

It annoys me that even the Guardian and the BBC seem to be utterly shit and sexist nowadays. Al Jazeera?

If you yourself are not responsible there is no need to be "ashamed ". It's the awful journos and more specifically their low life bosses who should be ashamed.

You can think it reprehensible, contemptible and shoddy without being personally ashamed.

Well the problem is there's no money. No one buys a newspaper anymore. What can you do?

YANBU. A neighbours son spent 3 years in college training to be a journalist and finally just left in disgust.

The problem is people want news but aren't prepared to pay for it. Staff levels are being slashed as a result and they can't be everywhere at once. Fewer reporters means quality ends up being lowered.
A lot of the copy in the big nationals has been nicked from locals, who at least still have some feet on the ground.

Ashamed in terms of how it represents the UK. British journalism was once renowned for its integrity and tenacity in pursuit of the truth.

I used to be a regular buyer of newspapers but have gradually stopped as they're all as bad as each other. Not just in terms of integrity and lack of balance, investigation but even minor annoyances like the filling with the likes of the bloody kardashians/made in Chelsea/towie nonsense plus the appalling quality of the writing even with basic SPAG!

Think it's partly down to the age of the internet meaning information is available at a click, so experienced journalists who had the information and knowledge in their heads, and who could thereby make good cognitive connections, are being culled to bring in graduates called "digital content managers", on half the salary and a tenth of the knowledge and experience.

So, they basically just c&p crap from fucking wikipedia, or twitter (where the burblings of thousands of ranters passes for news), and the medium (i.e. digital) matters more, it brings in more revenue from advertisers etc, so the method of broadcasting information/news becomes more important than the substance.

Hated it for years. I feel I can never get an honest reflection of what is going on in the world.

Most of the British press have been terrible for decades. Lying, racist, sexist, classist. The London Evening Standard and Metro are probably two of the worst. They are literally Tory mouthpieces interspersed with crap about Cara Delithingy. They seem to have no real understanding of or connection to the city like they've been written by sometime based two counties away. I'm pleased that most copies appear to go unread these days.

As for tv news I find Al Jazeera UK the most balanced.