Bjcorbin's Blog

I recently used the phrase “Yellow Journalism” in front of a young person, and they asked me what it meant. I explained that it was a term used to describe reporting that had little or no legitimate research behind it, which featured eye-catching headlines, exaggerations, scandal-mongering, sensationalism, and at times, pure fabrications.  I added that instead of simply reporting the facts in an unbiased fashion, and allowing people to draw their own conclusions, it was when the story was written with a pre-determined end in mind, and only the facts that supported that conclusion were presented.  The young person then asked, “why have I never heard of this?”  To which I replied, “because we don’t call it Yellow Journalism anymore”.  “What do they call it now” he asked.  I couldn’t help but smile as I replied, “journalism”.