It's just the abundance of it. People have built up an immunity or resistance to it. This complex of negativity is the heart of darkness for the news media because it demands that those who manage it face up at once to the intertwined roots of circulation loss and political alienation. This is hard work, harder than focus groups and readership surveys can handle. And so the fundamental issue of people's alienation from public life, from the stuff of the news, falls to the side.
Journalists hold solemn symposia on the corrosiveness of the journalism of scandal.
Publishers task their staffs with dreaming up schemes for packaging and marketing the product more effectively. All are fiddling on the margins as the erosion of public engagement with the stuff of the news, and public disgust with its commodification, intensifies. 3, December 20, 1999. This article may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the author.