The New Muckrakers: Can Celebrity Gossip Outlets Fill in for our Failing Newspapers?

It is ironic that Hearst newspapers are some of the first going out of business these days since it was in early Hearst publications that investigative journalism first found its voice, and it is in this very voice that our ailing press may yet find salvation.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (P-I), a Hearst publication, and a paper that has been in print for nearly 150 years, will publish its last edition this week. The San Francisco Chronicle, another Hearst publication, is rumored to go the same way soon, as are numerous other papers across this country.

As an old school journalist and one who loves the power of the press at its best to investigate and expose corruption in our democracy, I've watched with sadness as the Rocky Mountain News (which published its final edition in late February ) and the P-I (which will exist only on-line in a scaled-down version) have become publishing history.

And yet as a writer obsessed with the transformative power of a story, I discern in this extinction of a species -- the newsprint version of journalism -- the thread of a hopeful narrative. In the midst of this epidemic demise of our great cities' great papers there sparkles one flashy gem of hope: the tabloids stepping in where they have never trod before.

Celebrity web sites like TMZ and TV shows like "Inside Edition" and "Extra" are jumping in to fill a contemporary role in the muckraking tradition. Instead of focusing their dollars and time on the likes of the me-me-me behavior of Paris Hilton, they have begun to throw their energy at reporting the excesses of our corporate elite.

Is it possible that in this midst of the rubble in the collapsing newspaper industry we are witnessing the rise of the new muckrakers, reporters willing to go undercover to capture evidence of corporate abuses and then to report to an outraged public the discrepancies of the American dream? Footage of corporate moguls emerging from private jets and images of expensive gifts being showered on employees and clients at corporate events, daily lead news reports on once-celebrity-focused news sites and contribute to the fueling of the fiery populist rage whipping across this continent.

Obviously, these changes in reporting by outlets like TMZ have been made to capitalize on public outrage, to draw in viewers, but so too was the case of the early muckrakers who emerged in large part at Hearst publications about 100 years ago. Living conditions for the average American, during those days of our country's urban/industrial revolution, were at their lowest in the history of the country. People were hurting. The stories those muckrakers wrote found a ready home in the anger and resentment of the masses, and they helped make changes in government.

So while these contemporary media outlets are surely serving their own interests, there is hope in comments like Rory Waltzer's, a photographer for TMZ quoted in The New York Times, that unlike stories about Britney Spears, stories of Bernard Madoff and politicians in D.C. have an "impact on the country."

This shift in priorities could signal the dawn of something new in the Fourth Estate. If media outlets with enough money to continue reporting during these economic times rethink their contributions to our culture, journalists like Waltzer could become the new muckrakers. And if they did, they could do good in this country by filling the gap left by our failing newspapers.

Comments

[RobinSeattle]

"Can Celebrity Gossip Outlets Fill in for our Failing Newspapers?"

No.

Most of the folks that populate the gossip media have failed at legitimate journalism. Look at all those refugees from KCBS in LA (Steve Kmetko, Pat LaLama, Harvey Levin, Pat O'Brien, etc) as an example.

Gossip reporters are bottom feeders. They don't do real journalism.

[LeonBNJ]

The decline of newspapers also means less attention to local, regional and state politics, especially of government bodies, as well as issues of injustice. A local daily, the Hearld-News of West Paterson, NJ was with it's owner and other newspapers challanged the government all the way to the US Supreme Court as to the detention of post-9/11 illegals from Islamic countries and held in terrible conditions in the Passaic County Jail. They do stories like of local mayors who get caught on the take from contractors, cover public meetings to keep them clean, publicizing pollution problems businesses want to keep hidden, the local affects on the economic problems or our time. To lose more daily newspapers will be destroy all that. You can't make enough money on the internet to cover your costs for reporters and the like.

[Lisa Dale Norton - Huffpost Blogger]

I agree. It is our local papers that do the dirty work of keeping our government and institutions clean. We need them so very much. The Fourth Estate balances power in this country. Internet newspapers haven't found a way yet to fill that need. Read Shirky's article (link in a post below). His words remind us to hang in there and trust in innovation.

[RobinSeattle]

Sorry Lisa, but most town papers suck and do no real investigative journalism. They aren't much better than The Pennysaver, really.

It is more and more falling to independent weekly newspapers such as the Orange County Weekly and the Village Voice to keep the politicos and business uncomfortable.

[gdieken]

Great job Lisa!!
Clay Shirky posted a good essay with historical perspective as well: http://bit.ly/4uHKi

Keep it up. You definitely make Huffington more interesting!

[Lisa Dale Norton - Huffpost Blogger]

This is a great essay by Shirky. Thanks for linking it. Check it out, everyone. Shirky really nails the situation with an evocative analogy.

[bloomingtonclue]

I read about the muckrakers. We need them again. Our country needs newspapers and journalists and if papers can't make it financially, who will do the work of the investigative journalists? Imagine the Nixon years without Watergate. Woodward and Bernstein were heroes.

[Lisa Dale Norton - Huffpost Blogger]

Woodward and Bernstein are good examples of contemporary muckrakers. They changed the way Washington worked. They show us why we need a strong press. Thanks for reading and commenting.

[newswatcher6700]

Wouldn't that be great? I'd like to see the tabloids do some good. Great idea.