Comment on Roger L Simon: The PJ Tatler » My suggestion to replace Couric

The PJ Tatler » My suggestion to replace Couric

cthulhu 35, Beat me to it.

Mary Katherine Ham would be a brilliant choice. She is a real journalist. She grew up knowing the business as her father is a journalist and she can both write and do video. Pull in John Stossel for feature reporting and build a core of two dozen real reporters from two sources. Half from the despised local affiliates who actually knock on doors and follow stories and half from those with recent military service.

Next we need a program to rebuild the pipeline of qualified people who work in delivering the news. To many of the people working in the news industry have earned their credentials in Soros funded advocacy shops after a stint in grad school but have never held a real job or performed old fashioned news chasing. Getting a paycheck in the news business, as opposed to working in it, becomes a stop in a revolving door between foundations and government, with a little excitement and occasional danger thrown in. Given the shifts to New Media this has been tolerated as part of an fin de siècle indulgence. If people really believe in and want to save journalism then they need to break the cycle of self indulgence and cronyism. The reform to open up the industry to new voices would be to ensure that admission to the Gatekeeper J schools happen after 5 years in some real job, such as the military, teaching, banking, engineering etc. These would be no panacea, cronyism and ideological corruption are like rust in that they never sleep. Serious efforts to demonstrate a commitment to reforming the scandal stained image of Journalism could prove clever marketing.