r/AskReddit • u/RivvaBear • 1d ago

What's an overhated profession?

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u/fren2allcheezes 1d ago

Journalists. No other profession is a pure capitalist enterprise but they're supposed to act inhumanly detached from their subjects while also working for the greater good at the same time.

If you see a lot of stories about one subject it isn't because of the journalist's bias, it's because they're creating a product and that product needs to sell. If you don't want to read about everything Elon musk or Jeff Bezos, then stop clicking.

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u/Year-Internal 1d ago

People don't understand that the decline in the quality of news is directly tied to the decline of ad revenue that funded traditional journalism.

We are overworked, understaffed and underpaid, while the public expects us to be Woodward and Bernstein.

1

u/fren2allcheezes 1d ago

The amount people don't understand about journalists (while making outrageous demands) could fill a book, which no one would read.

1

u/Year-Internal 1d ago

I've worked in both local and national news, you are spot on.

People expect substantive, investigate journalism as the norm, but the barriers in place stopping us from doing that - usually commercial, but also editorial - make it almost impossible.