On 14 December 2011 09:42, Brij Blog <[email protected]> wrote: > I do not think your analogy fits the case. I have no horse in this race > (been unsubscribed from daily newspapers for more than a year now, so cannot > really comment on their quality) but just going through this thread I think > you that is not what Kiran meant. If we would apply your analogy back to > news it would be like someone reading Playboy (going to the ice cream > vendor) and expecting to get news (I know, I know we read Playboy for the > articles; leave that be) That was not the contention here. Here Kiran was > saying that we are reading a major daily newspaper and expecting to see a > certain 'level' of news. So the right analogy would be that a person goes to > a professional who has the certificate of a doctor (like the newsman has the > Press tag) and expects to be cured.
This is where we disagree. Tags don't mean a thing. I call homeopaths quacks but a bunch of others call them doctors. It really does not make a difference. If enough people turn to homeopathy, regular medicine will go bust -- while you and me argue about how it is the ethical duty of homeopaths to take themselves out of business. Times of India has the largest circulation among English newspapers not because it is giving people a lower level of news than what they are asking for. It has the largest circulation because it is giving them *precisely* what they are asking for. People are not being suckered into bad journalism -- they are asking to be entertained instead of being informed. And you know what -- it is their choice. People like Kiran and you and me who are looking for a certain level of news are in the minority. And we are probably also the ones who have other options. I don't subscribe to a newspaper either because I don't find any of them good enough, and I can pick and choose the columns I want to read online. It makes next to no financial sense for a newspaper to cater to me. > So the right analogy would be that a person goes to > a professional who has the certificate of a doctor (like the newsman has the > Press tag) and expects to be cured. Now if the doctor prescribes ice cream > and palliatives to keep the patient(user) happy and at the same time writes > down a set of tests to be done to keep the hospital (management/business) > happy then it is questionable ethics, is it not? You are saying people are going to the doctor for medicine and are being prescribed ice cream instead. (Yes, that would be unethical.) I'm saying people are making a conscious choice to get ice cream instead of medicine. And that's not the ice cream vendor's fault. Venky (the Second).
