Genuine investigative reporting is not only very expensive, it is politically fraught, and commercially unviable in this context. I
Le Canard Enchainé proves the opposite. They have no advertising, are consistently profitable, and have brought down at least one president and countless ministers and other powerful figures (for instance, they broke Papon's role during WWII, eventually leading to his sentence for war crimes almost 20 years later - he was minister of budget at the time) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
It happens now only when whistleblowers take the risk and provide the data, when academics or other independents do the hard work, or when what is being uncovered suit the political agenda of the proprietor - ref. Commons expenses scandal.
And they do print their own investigations, and just the fact of keeping some embarrassing stories in full view is a vital one. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The Washington Post did the Watergate expose and seems to have been living off (and living down) that coup ever since.. The current "States of Play" thriller (which I haven't seen) is all about heroic journalist who breaks big story against mega corporate interests. But how often does this really happen? The commercial reality is that celebrity rags do better, and it is so much easier and cheaper to overlay the press releases with some op-ed to provide the veneer of critical objectivity. notes from no w here
They've been behind most of the major scandals in France over the past 40 years. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
They've been behind most of the major scandals in France over the past 40 years.
Presumably you mean they have exposed them rather than been behind them! notes from no w here
I don't know enough about Le Canard Enchainé's business model to comment on the accuracy of your comment, but even if you are correct, is it not the exception that proves the rule?
You could also argue that it proves that when broadcast media play to their strengths, it works.
The fact that most broadcast media fail to do so is no more an indictment of the media platforms in and of themselves than the election of Václav Klaus is an indictment of representative democracy as a whole.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
