Blessed BeThe Newsmakers

Steven Bates has a priceless article in Slate today titled Blessed Be The Newsmakers. His thesis is that newspapers can stop their decline by declaring themselves as a religion.

"... as New York University's Jay Rosen points out (and noted earlier), American journalism itself constitutes a sort of religion, "a belief system and meaning-making kit that is shared across editorial cultures in mainstream newsrooms." What qualifies as news reflects an idealized notion of democracy. Public corruption brings forth righteous wrath from the press's pulpit. Reporters strive to "evoke indignation at the violation of social values," media scholars James S. Ettema and Theodore L. Glasser observe in their book "Custodians of Conscience"—as, they add, the prophet Jeremiah did."

"Just as the Puritans vowed to purify the Church of England, journalists seek to purify the country's institutions of self-government. "Democracy," Philadelphia Evening Bulletin editor Fred Fuller Shedd declared in 1931, 'functions largely through the efficient service of the newspaper'—no great leap from 'No one comes to the Father except through me.' The Scripps Newspapers' motto admonishes, 'Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.' See also John 8:12: 'I am the light of the world.'"

Bates concludes with "It shouldn't be that hard to reposition the press as a church. It's already halfway there." Well, maybe that's an average, but the New York Times has been there for decades.