Journalism must conform to groupthink, be approved by Tom Friedman, otherwise it's bad for the country--Columbia Journ. Rev.

CJR article says journalism needs to fall in line, needs to conform, meet the approval of people like NY Times' Tom Friedman, a member of the Pulitzer Prize judging panel. They screamed for free speech until they got control of information outlets. No more:

• 4/13/10, CJR headline, "The WSJ's Pulitzer Shutout is Bad for the Country"...

CJR: "It’s not good the Journal isn’t doing Pulitzer-level work in the eyes of Pulitzer jurists. It’s not good that the global financial news leader is drifting away [from] the journalism establishment.

• Journalism needs an establishment,

• and the Journal needs to be in it.

Especially now, with the financial crisis nowhere near fully explored or explained, the Journal remains an indispensable resource for readers and the public generally.

• At the risk of being overly earnest, I hope the Journal’s new brass takes the Pulitzer results not as a snub but as a challenge. Let’s not have another April like this."

• from Columbia Journalism Review article by Dean Starkman, 4/13/10, via Poynter.org/Romenesko. ***(item at end of article)

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About awards, from an 11/16/08 Australian Broadcasting report of a Rupert Murdoch speech:

• "He says some newspapers have become too focused on winning awards, or

• pushing their own agendas, at the expense of circulation....

• Mr Murdoch says the desire for awards among journalists has become a fetish.

• He says papers are running stories reflecting their own interests and

for fellow journalists rather than what is relevant to readers' lives, while some editors commission stories where

• the sole purpose is the quest for a prize.

• "When I started out in the business anyone who dared parade a prize for excellence would have been hooted out of the newsroom for taking himself too seriously," he said.

"But today the desire for awards has become a fetish. Papers may be losing money, losing circulation, and laying off people left and right, but they will have a wall full of awards - prisoners of the past rather than enthusiasts for the future.""

• "Newspapers can survive digital age: Murdoch" 11/16/08, Australian Broadcasting Corp. News

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