Dana Blankenhorn

The Inherent Conflict of the Business Press

I have been a business reporter since 1978, and one thing has always bothered me about it.

We root for criminals. We always have.

When baseball players take steroids, baseball writers don’t root for those players. When politicians lie, or steal, political writers will turn on them in a minute. Even an entertainment reporter will destroy Lindsay Lohan in a heartbeat.

But the financial press isn’t like that. For some reason, we identify with the criminal classes. When the cops come we stand on the street and demand they not arrest anyone. When the lawyers come to sue, or when the politicians come to pass laws aimed at halting the crime sprees, we act like it’s the criminals who are being put upon.

This has been the case ever since I started in this business, and there is a reason for it.

Business won’t stand for honest advocacy. A reporter who is an honest advocate for the proper role of business, for law and order, is not going to be in the financial reporting business for long. They demand sycophancy, even when it’s not in their best interest, even when it means having their own reputations ruined by someone else’s greed.

A New Model for Journalism

Ever since the Web was spun, 21 years ago now, I have continually asked publishers a single, simple question.

How hungry are you? (Gee, we were all so young then...)

The fact is that journalists have never been very hungry. An ad is just an empty billboard. The buyer has to fill it with a message that will drive people down the sales funnel. Traditional journalists haven’t bothered themselves with such things.

Publishers had to. A publisher’s job is to define a market – a place, an industry, a lifestyle – and bring buyers together with copy that he can then sell ads against. Publishers are businessmen. They are not subject to the “ethics” of journalists. They’re subject to the laws and the rules of business. They should be focused on market making. That is their job. For 20 years they have failed to do that job, and journalism as a whole has suffered.

Here’s how hungry you can get.

Saudi Arabia is Not Our Friend

In my studies of history over the last decade, conducted on this blog, I’ve noticed that each generation has its own political thesis, its own dominant media, and its own dominant industry. Old theories, media and industries continue to exist, but they lose their importance as history marches forward, technology leading, economics following, media reflecting, and politicians trailing somewhere behind.

This is also true regarding our foreign relations. Each generation has a key ally and a key enemy. The identities of the friend and foe shift with the times. Germany, once a foe, has become a friend.

Saudi Arabia, once a friend, has become a foe.

The Public Interest

Recently a reporter friend of mine, a good man of conservative politics, did a piece about an ongoing effort by the cell phone industry to take over WiFi.

Unlicensed frequencies are unlicensed, the carriers say. That means they should be available to everyone, including people who own licensed frequencies. That means carriers should be able to use them, too.