Saving the Beast

Feed the beast! From a newsroom battle cry to the lamentation of reporters under deadline, the beast - the news - needed nourishment to be satiated. To do this properly, reporters were guided by principles like professionalism and objectivity. But that canon has been cast aside. The food is now tainted, poisonous to the once-thriving beast. The beast is dying. Mainstream media and its audience once enjoyed an unspoken covenant; the public expected the media to deliver the news in an unbiased, ob