Who Will Tell Us?

[Commentary] The steady drip of buyouts and layoffs has consumed an estimated four thousand newsroom jobs in print alone since the turn of the century, according to the much-chewed-over annual State of the News Media report released in March by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. As to whether the Web is replenishing this reportorial firepower, the authors are blunt: “In print, broadcast and elsewhere, more effort is moving to packaging and repurposing material….But less is being devoted to original newsgathering, especially the bearing witness and monitoring of basic news.” The current presidential election is arguably the most important in recent history, given the magnitude of the problems the winner will confront on day one—yet fewer seasoned reporters are questioning both candidates and voters; fewer journalists are out bearing witness. Meanwhile, the ever-growing armies of pundits deployed by cable outlets on Big Nights—the debates, Super Tuesday, etc.—yammer on about What It All Means, though nary a one goes out knocking on the doors of the folks who might tell them.
http://www.cjr.org/editorial/who_will_tell_us.php