How I Know Will Leitch Is Wrong
I don’t fancy myself an expert in media of any sort. I came late to the world of people who type or talk in public for a living, after years toiling away typing and talking in private as an attorney for bankers and businessmen.
Still, I think my friend Will’s attempt to break down the media into two categories goes wrong on the most basic level. He supposes, more or less, that there are two types of mediaites. First, there those who “journalists in the truest sense.” They care about the common good and want to use the power of the “fourth estate” to invoke change. Second, there are those who pretend to be the first type but really only want to promote themselves.
I know this is wrong because I’m neither. I don’t believe in the fourth estate’s power and I lack the ambition of world improvers to invoke change. (Digression: I’m not all that clear about what the first three estates are these days. Do we really have four estates?)
The world, as I see it, is down with a score of ailments that are painful and difficult to look at. Almost all are chronic and incurable. The best we can do is to remind ourselves that life is good, and humanity is stubbornly charming despite and because of its flaws.
But the realization that our problems are basically insoluable is not a call to complacency. There’s a lot to be done. First and foremost, we have the task of demonstrating the insolubility of our great problems. Knocking down the latest incarnation of the world improvers’ messianic passion, showing that the latest sovereign balm is nothing more than snake oil, is a never-ending task because the world-improvers will always be with us. The presence of the improvers is, in fact, one of our insoluable problems. More generally, we have the task of celebrating beauty, welcoming good and honest work, and fighting against those who insist that life is a dreary affair and thus must be immediately be made even drearier.
There’s a kind of austere beauty in this line of work. It’s fun and stimulating once you get the hang of it.
That said, Will’s probably right that most of the media types are do-gooders or pretenders. But in my more hopeful moments I imagine that I’m not the only one who thinks this way, and that perhaps my kind of people amount to one percent of those who talk or type for a living. But maybe this is just an comforting story I tell myself on days when I’m feeling especially alone.
Sources:
“From my experience, 27 percent of the people who work in media (and I’m using the Mediaite definition of media, which is pretty much “anyone who gets paid for typing, talking or figuring out how to fire people who type or talk”) are journalists in the truest sense, out to enlighten the public for common good, altruistic believers in the fourth estate and its power to invoke change. The other 73 percent are pretending to be that 27 percent and really just trying to promote their own personal brand.”—
Will Leitch, The Real Reason You Should Hate The Media (And That Includes Us)
