What’s wrong with journalism today?

According to Arthur Silber, problem Numero Uno might be that many leading lights in the MSM regard themselves as high priests of an arcane cult of Access.

Extending his analogy further, we might talk of a hermeneutics, metaphysics and more of this new cult. As with the Aaronic priests penetrating the veil into The Most Holy Place, and not revealing that the “unnamed source” is an empty box, so too, this conclave won’t tell what really is — or isn’t — behind the screens of confidentiality.

Marty Kaplan’s comments on the Huffington Post are the perfect follow-up to this.

For example, he notes of this priesthood, “They make the rules up as they go along.” Well, sure. It’s the equivalent of a “new revelation.”

And that’s just the start of the analogy.

We also know now that the MSM is largely useless for adjudicating between conflicting claims and establishing what the facts are.

Well, like any religion, the mythos about the religious establishment, not the truth values of its pronouncements or actions, are the bottom line.

One thing neither one asks is whether the system of top granduate schools, such as Missouri, and even more Northwestern, and above all, Columbia, where you can now get a fricking Ph.D. in journalism, aren’t part of the problem. That, of course, would be compounded to the degree the highest of the high priests are asked to be guest lecturers, etc., at these seminaries of journalism.

And, does an increasing emphasis on a corporate bottom line add to this?

Well, if the priests are marketed as being essential to the system, yes.