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Monday, September 23, 2013

Week 4, Research Report 15, Cassidy Neuville

The Squeeze by Russ Baker
                         
          While mass media has gone through several revolutions, "the wall" within journalism has slowly broken down. With the business side influencing and taking control over the news, credibility has been questioned. In, The Squeeze, published in the Columbia Journalism Review in 1997, Russ Baker takes a firm stance on this issue by arguing that advertisers should not have any control or relationship with the editors since it causes a negative impact on the content of the media. Russ Baker's point is to have a free press and to allow the editors to publish what they want, without the advertisers having any say. While researching Russ Baker and the publisher of this article, I am self-assured that the information and argument provided in this article is accurate and well founded.
         Russ Baker received an MS in Journalism from the University of Columbia and a BA in Political Science from UCLA. While writing for many US publications such as New Yorker, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post to name a few, he is also a member of the adjunct faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Russ Baker is a US investigative journalist and founder of the nonprofit website WhoWhatWhy.com. He has won several awards, one specifically called the Deadline Club Award in 2005 for his reporting on George W. Bush's military record. In 2002 the U.S. government gave him a grant to travel to Serbia to train journalists in investigative reporting, and in 2009 his book, Family of Secrets: the Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America was published. His known themes of his writings are of politics, secrecy, and abuses of power. Bakers' past is not only impressive, but also intimidating (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Baker).
          Russ Baker states that he started "WhoWhatWhy because I was tired of the cynicism, self-interest, and cowardice that I witnessed in the new media"(http://whowhatwhy.com/the-project/). Russ Baker's career in journalism has been about finding the truth and sharing it to the public in a captivating and comprehensible way. With that said, when he wrote, The Squeeze, in 1997, he wrote it to inform the public and to warn editors to draw the line between themselves and the advertisers.
          Through Baker's various investigations and awards, he has established himself as a reliable journalist with an extreme amount of credibility. Not only is this true about himself, but also about the Columbia Journalism Review, which was founded in 1961 under the Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Their goal is to "encourage excellence in journalism in the service of a free society" (http://www.cjr.org/about_us/mission_statement.php). With this being said, there is high confidence in the credibility of this article by Russ Baker due to his and the publishers valid and trustworthy histories. Also, an online response to this article compliments Baker's article by stating it was well researched (http://philosophia.uncg.edu/node/18). I conclude by saying that, The Squeeze, demonstrates an unbiased and dependable work of journalism.

1 comment:

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