From this Sunday's Meet the Press during a discussion on The Washington Post being sold to Amazon's Jeff Bezos, David Brooks just couldn't stop himself from using the occasion to take a pot shot at bloggers.
I'd like to know why anyone thinks David Brooks, who is over-paid to regurgitate the same "both sides" do it 800 words in his column week after week by The New York Times is qualified to weigh in on the future of journalism and the Internet, since he obviously doesn't know much of anything about either.
DAVID GREGORY: David?
DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, I think the audience has changed online. I think there's been a return to authority. You know, I used to read blogs, and you'd kind of be reading something interesting, and then the blogger would write, "Well, I've got to quit now. I'm going off to junior high." I realized I'd been reading a 12 year old.
But I think there has been a return away from some of that toward, whether it's online or in print, a return to quality. People who actually make the calls, who are not speculating, who are reporting. And I think there's been a return to that sort of stuff.
And so I'm a little more of the belief that the old media is going to continue. Look at ebooks; they've hit a plateau. Look at online; it's hitting a plateau, I think. And so I think we're going to be stunned by how much of the old media, whether it's delivered online or not, is going to be around, as the audience returns to authority (?)--
DAVID GREGORY: Isn't that a way, Kara--
KARA SWISHER: You're using terms, "old media." Why are you doing that anymore? I mean, it's kind of like-- is it because you're old or whatever? But that's not the case.
DAVID BROOKS: I'm not that old.
KARA SWISHER: No, I know that. I'm also old. But the fact of the matter is, the fact that you're using terms "old media" and "new media," it's changed completely. For example, we have a staff of six people covering tech. Very small, lean staff. We pay our reporters very well. We broke a lot of the major news stories when every other bureau has larger people. It's not a function of cost; it's not necessarily a function of having this old institution. It's a function of embracing these tools and doing the same thing.
DAVID BROOKS: I was--
KARA SWISHER: I think people are just resistant to the change, and they have to say "blogs" as if it's an insult. They have to, like, separate them. And they're all part of a living, breathing news organization that has to use these tools. It's like arguing against printing presses. You know, monks arguing against Guttenberg. I just don't understand why--
(OVERTALK)
DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I'm not sure we're disagreeing. I would say when you look at projections of the future, go back, look at how people predicted the future, they always underestimated the extent of technological change. They always overestimated a sense of behavioral change. So the technology's going to change, but what people want to read is going to be basically the same--
KARA SWISHER: But the consumers are way ahead of you.
DAVID BROOKS: --it's just people doing reporters (?).
KARA SWISHER: The consumers are already there. I mean, when I start speeches, I'm like it's not just the kids love but everybody loves it.
DAVID BROOKS: I know.
It seems Swisher had a pretty good idea of what she was in for before she went on the show, because, as they mentioned a bit earlier in the segment, she posted this at Instagram just before going on the air.
