General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Was Jeff Gannon a journalist? [View all]Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)and even if he was a despicable person who wrote hyper slanted articles and existed as a "friend of Rove" who wrote ideologically pure articles, yes he was a Journalist work for organizations exclusively on the ideological far right.
If all he ever did was hang out on Free Republic and post links to racist sexist homophobic (this would be before he was outed) diatribes on his personal journal or blog, he would not have been a journalist.
I would love to limit journalism to only legitimate news organizations, but they are wondrously (perhaps even extinct) rare now days. It would be nice to limit journalism to only those that write or broadcast articles that are ideologically neutral, but I only no one person who even comes close to that marker. Those who write or broadcast news or opinion from ideologically left sources justify my own set of political philosophies, but they are as suspect as many on the right and should be fact checked.
To me, the real source of legitimate journalism is with the many small, local internet magazines that have, for the most part, replaced local papers and news organizations. They don't have the money to report on international stories, or even national stories (unless that story is situated within their small geographic region), but these are genuine organizations who service their local communities.