The scariest result of Washington Wizard guard Gilbert Arenas bringing four guns into the team's locker room in D.C. wasn't his subsequent indefinite suspension (a death knell for my NBA fantasy team), the revelation that one of the guns was an "Austin Powers"-like gold-plated Desert Eagle nor the resulting prospects for the Wizards' season without their top guard.No, the most fear in this former journalist stems from the news that the picture above was almost censored out of existence.
When I talk about the loss of so many journalists from the profession--whether by news organizations shrinking or workers like myself refusing to put up with the low pay, long hours and no recognition--many people say "So what?" Their view: Bloggers, citizen journalists and the remaining news organizations can do the same job, I won't get any less news.
Well, here is the problem. As fewer writers and photographers are covering events, news organizations are relying more on the organizations to cover themselves. In this instance, the NBA hires photographers to take pictures, then licenses Getty Images to distribute them to newspapers and other publications.
As soon as the picture of Arenas poking fun at the gun incident by making finger guns in the pregame huddle became national news, the NBA pulled it. Only through an outcry by Getty and the organizations it services did the picture re-appear.
In the future, I can guarantee you that the NBA will hire a photo editor--or, if it already has one, replace him/her---and make it a necessity of that job to not transmit any pictures to Getty that could paint the league in a bad light. Or, you know, make news.
Now, let's take this a step further. Fewer photographers and writers means more organization-originated news. As a hypothetical, let's say there are fewer photogs following around the California governor. Therefore, the state hires a shooter to follow the governor around to make sure that his preferred grip-and-grin photos with schoolchildren and dignitaries make their way to the papers to help approval ratings.
In one of these meetings, the governor makes a major faux pas, such as President Obama's deep bow to the Japanese prime minister, which caused such an uproar in 2009. You would never know about it. Nobody would ever be made aware. The picture would be destroyed or at least hidden until the governor is out of office.
This would be just a minor example. We have already seen broadcast news organizations using stories given to them directly by the government. Soon, the press releases that reporters use as leads will be turned over directly to the public, with all the slant and mistruths that companies and government organizations pay PR people to place in them.
And you, my dear friend, will be receiving less real news and more of the self-serving misinformation that the government and private businesses want you to think is the truth.
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