Feature
Reality bites
by Matt Nippert
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The most recent political arena Simon has found himself thrust into seems to complete his career circle. The one-time reporter has become a sort of poster boy for saving journalism. With so many newspapers in the US in dire financial straits, Simon was called on in May to testify at Kerry’s hearings on the state of the industry. Flanked by newspaper executives on one side and representatives of “new media”, such as blogs, on the other, Simon laid into all and sundry.
“Understand here that I am not making a Luddite argument against the internet and all that it offers,” he began, before arguing that bloggers are unable to replicate the comprehensive coverage required for healthy democratic debate that newspapers deliver. New media, he said, “does not deliver much first-generation reporting. Instead, it leeches that reporting from mainstream news publications.” The wholesale flocking of advertising revenue online from newspapers has led to the situation where “the parasite is killing the host”.
But he didn’t cut his former bosses any slack either. Simon notes that many cutbacks in the news industry – including his own redundancy – preceded the current panic over the internet and are partly to blame for falling circulation. “They were selling lemonade. And first they took out the sugar, then they took out the lemon juice, and then they took out the ice. And then they’re wondering why no one wants to buy their water, it’s embarrassing – they eviscerated their own product.”
His relationship with newspapers is clearly conflicted. Speaking now, years after leaving the newsroom, Simon still has trouble reconciling the truth-seeking reporter he was with the producer of fiction he’s become. “I still sort of can’t believe it. There’s a part of me that thinks I’m a newspaper man – I just don’t happen to have a newspaper anymore.”
