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“Journalism is going to survive,” he said. “It’s a strong thing. It’s like a river. It may change directions, it may get dirty, but water gets to wherever it needs to go.”
But the more elegant the metaphor, the more skeptical we need to be of it. Robaugh’s words turned in my head until finally I decided they were not only more poetic than true but perhaps even dangerous. Not that Robaugh himself doesn’t know better, but the idea of journalism as an irresistible force supports the very bad idea that news has no choice but to come to us. An earthquake kills dozens in Italy and of course we soon know all about it. Word reaches us like water does — or, more precisely, like the light of the sun shining over the earth. Somehow, we assume, anything that happens that matters radiates what we need to know about it.
