"I think it's a good thing that there are bloggers out there watching very closely and holding people accountable. Everyone in the news should be able to hold up to that kind of scrutiny. I'm for as much transparency in the newsgathering process as possible"
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Cooper is doing something quietly strategic here: praising the people most likely to heckle his profession while setting terms for how they should matter. Coming from a legacy-TV journalist, the endorsement of bloggers reads less like a love letter to citizen media than a recognition of a new power center he can’t afford to dismiss. He frames bloggers as watchdogs, not rivals, which flatters the digital crowd while keeping the spotlight on journalism’s public-service mandate instead of its collapsing business model.
The key word is “accountable.” It’s moral language, not market language. He’s arguing that scrutiny is not an attack on the press; it’s the price of credibility. That’s an attempt to re-legitimize mainstream news in an era when audiences increasingly assume “the media” is a self-protecting class. By saying “everyone in the news should be able to hold up,” he implies that those who can’t withstand the blogosphere’s fact-checking and clip-sharing maybe shouldn’t be in the business. It’s a subtle boundary-drawing move: the problem isn’t scrutiny, it’s weak reporting.
Then he goes for “transparency,” a word that sounds radical but can also be managerial. Transparency in “newsgathering” suggests showing receipts: sources, methods, what you knew when. It invites trust by narrating process, not just delivering conclusions. In context, this is post-internet news: mistakes travel faster, corrections are public, and the audience has tools. Cooper’s intent is to align himself with that reality, positioning professionalism not as authority you demand, but as something you earn under bright lights.
The key word is “accountable.” It’s moral language, not market language. He’s arguing that scrutiny is not an attack on the press; it’s the price of credibility. That’s an attempt to re-legitimize mainstream news in an era when audiences increasingly assume “the media” is a self-protecting class. By saying “everyone in the news should be able to hold up,” he implies that those who can’t withstand the blogosphere’s fact-checking and clip-sharing maybe shouldn’t be in the business. It’s a subtle boundary-drawing move: the problem isn’t scrutiny, it’s weak reporting.
Then he goes for “transparency,” a word that sounds radical but can also be managerial. Transparency in “newsgathering” suggests showing receipts: sources, methods, what you knew when. It invites trust by narrating process, not just delivering conclusions. In context, this is post-internet news: mistakes travel faster, corrections are public, and the audience has tools. Cooper’s intent is to align himself with that reality, positioning professionalism not as authority you demand, but as something you earn under bright lights.
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| Topic | Internet |
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