Those goals have a lot to do with the decline of journalism.

Journalists wrongly think that corruption is about money. And the actions that they wish to inspire are, too often, nonsensical if not fundamentally wrong.

Getting the facts is hard. Getting the relevant facts is even harder. What are the odds that a given person can recognize and report truth across more than a small range of subjects? Yet, journalists tell us that they do.

People want news, so the unpopularity of journalists says something important about journalism.

Making money and dealing with money-makers is a necessity, nothing more, nothing less. Making the world a better place by serving our communities and giving people a voice is our mission, what drives us day in and day out. As long as we keep that distinction clear in our own minds, I think we’ll be fine.

I am writing this post from two points of view. First, as a teacher, parent and unreformed journalism zealot, I totally agree with you and your mother. Do journalism because you have to tell stories, because you want to give the subjects of those stories a voice and you’d do it even if people didn’t pay you.

Now let’s change views. Pretend you’re an investor and someone comes to you and says, “I want to create a new form of journalism.” As an investor, are you more interested in a person who wants to do this even if it doesn’t make money, or a person who wants to do this because they want to make a million bucks before they’re thirty, and this plan for a new journalism is how they think they want to do it?

Does this mean I want to become a money grubber? No, that’s not who I am (and I have the savings account to prove it). Does this mean our industry needs to have a greater appreciation for money grubbers and the role they could play? This is the deal-with-the-devil question we have to answer if the Phoenix is going to make it out of the ashes.

– Curt Chandler