[FRIAM] Nautilus: Investing Is More Luck Than Talent

[Robert Wall]

>
> Without millions of dollars of cash flow, there can’t be professional
> investigators.


Not so.  Not at all.  There are several Internet-based, often
donation-dependent (I donate to several), news and opinion outlets that do
very good, in-depth investigative journalism Take a look at Greg Palast
<http://www.gregpalast.com/>, for one. Palast did a couple of investigative
pieces on how the election results did not jive with the exit polling stats
in dozens of cases.  Exit polls have long been thought of as reliable
leading indicators of ultimate winners.

How about Seymour Hersh <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh>?  For
opinion, I really miss Christopher Hitchens
<http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2000/01/christopher-hitchens>.

Then there are *CounterPunch*, *Truthout*, and* DemocracyNow* (with Amy
Goodman), *The Real News Network*, *Truthdig *(with über-investigative
journalist Chris Hedges) are also among the many well-respected sources
today for investigative journalism. I tend to like Glen Greenwald formerly
of the *Guardian *and now with his own Investigative Journalism blog: *The
Intercept*. These are the members of the Fifth Estate that are getting
their acts together and doing the job formerly assigned by society to the
Fourth Estate: reliable watchdog.  Now we need a watchdog to watch the
supposed watchdog.

If you happened to watch the movie *Spotlight
<https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/17/investigative-journalism-spotlight-attacking-the-devil>*,
you would have learned that investigative journalism is largely
disappearing from the MSM.  It just isn't much appreciated by the
subscribers (they rather be tantalized with the latest news about the
Kardashians.), it doesn't pay the bills, and it is reasoned as too
expensive to do.  See also: *HuffPost*: Journalism Isn't Dying - It's Being
Murdered
<http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dave-yin/journalism-isnt-dying_b_9043884.html>
(January
2016).

The genesis of this dilemma goes back to Bill Clinton's signing of the
Telecommunications Act in 1996 giving a green light to the rapid and
massive consolidation of the industry by the oligarchy and the large
corporations that are often the subject of investigations. It is argued
that Clinton did this to make nice with the GOP that wanted to impeach him
at the time.

Let's actually give thanks to the emergent Fifth Estate for continuing to
give investigative journalism life after the Telecommunications Act. Many
of these reporters had to become freelancers or form their own online
havens for plying their craft. That's what we see happening now in this
profession.

Even skeptics of the expertise of journalists have to admit that an
> advantage of having a job is that you can do it all the time.    The 5th estate
> may be less censored in their remarks, but without actual evidence they’ll
> run out of new things to say.


As it turns out, the reality of investigative journalism is quite the
opposite of what you suppose.  Then there is this: *Salon*: Why we’re
living in the golden age of investigative journalism
<http://www.salon.com/2014/08/31/why_were_living_in_the_golden_age_of_investigative_journalism/>
(August 2014).  And this: *The Ring of Fire Network
<https://trofire.com/our-show/>*: Corporate America tried to Kill
Investigative Journalism: They didn’t Anticipate Social Media
<https://trofire.com/2015/08/30/corporate-america-thought-it-killed-investigative-journalism-wrong-huff-post-intercept-and-other-social-media-are-now-here/>
(August 2015).  I mean, just Google this stuff for yourself and you will
see what is going on in this usually noble profession.  Evidence often
survives under the FOIA or from other sources like whistleblowers, etc. Not
running out of anything to say ...

In my opinion, and as heard from others, what gives this survival of the
craft "legs," post-Clinton--is the runaway condition of the neoliberal
world benefiting only the elite.  Lots to investigate and report to keep it
going.  The fake news that we find more often instream tends to be like
anti-aircraft flak sent out--even by institutions like the *Washington
Post*--to
fool the readership away from zeroing in on anything damaging.  I am not
sure, but this Russian hacking thing could just be a distraction from
zeroing in too much on why the Dems lost the election that they should have
won. Not an original idea from me, but from the alternative news outlets
that are now trying to keep an eye on things. 😎

To be sure, I also read the *New York Times*, the *Washington Post*, the *Wall
Street Journal*, and the *Guardian*.  This is where you will find what the
corporatocracy wants you to think. It's usually a good starting place, but
not much in the way of investigative journalism except as brought in by the
freelancers ... folks like  Seymour Hersh. If it's important, then I think
you must go to multiple alternative sources to calibrate. For example,
nobody in the MSM is covering the election fraud story about *CrossCheck*.
Greg Palast, *DemocracyNow*, *The Rolling Stone*, *Daily Kos*, and *Slate*
are.  Why?  It seems quite important, especially against the backdrop of
the Russian hacking story.

Cheers

On Fri, Jan 20, 2017 at 12:40 PM, Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com>
wrote:

> Robert writes:
>
>
>
> “The former--predominately the MSM--freely castigates any news source
> other than from among their own too-often colluding colleagues. The former
> fears the latter, especially since the barriers to entry are so low,
> comparatively.”
>
>
>
> Here again there is a benefit and a cost associated with the accumulation
> of media power.   Without millions of dollars of cash flow, there can’t be
> professional investigators.   Even skeptics of the expertise of journalists
> have to admit that an advantage of having a job is that you can do it all
> the time.    The 5th estate may be less censored in their remarks, but
> without actual evidence they’ll run out of new things to say.
>
>
>
> Marcus
>
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