Standards, Clothing, and Vainglory

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“Our new forms of writing — blogs, Facebook, Twitter — all have precedents, analogue [chiefly British variant of analog] analogues: a notebook, a postcard, a jotting on the back of an envelope. They are exceedingly accessible. That it is easier to cultivate a wide audience for tossed off thoughts has meant a superfluity of mundane musings, to be sure. But it has also generated a democracy of ideas and quite a few rising stars, whose work we might never have been exposed to were we limited to conventional publishing channels. [...] Yes, we need to darken the line between what is verifiable and what is hearsay. The financial downturn and its disastrous impact on print publishing has led some to think we can do without trained reporters and editors -- professionals who know how to check facts and strip the gloss off hasty pronouncements. We need this work, perhaps now more than ever. But not at the expense of silencing the new voices -- an exciting new crop of self-possessed scribes -- ringing all over our screens. There may be too much, but that does not mean it is unworthy.” [emphasis added]
 — Anne Trubek, associate professor of Rhetoric & Composition at Oberlin College

Hear, hear. I agree whole-heartedly with the thrust of Professor Trubek's remarks. I do question, however, the premise that "trained reporters and editors" have ever justified our expectations for "professionals who know how to check facts and strip the gloss off hasty pronouncements".

Now, perhaps more than ever before, I suspect, as many others have opined, those "professionals" seem to be sadly lacking in their professional standards and even their professional ethics. The "standards and ethics" they wrap themselves in appear to be analogous to the proverbial "emperor's new clothes". And they themselves are frequently exposed as nothing more than superficial glorified scribblers glorifying vainglorious narcissists, as venereal tingling runs up their hairy legs.

Post #830 Standards, Clothing, and Vainglory