In a fantastic article for The Columbia Journalism Review, former New York Times reporter John Sullivan documents the rise of the PR industry alongside the decline of the journalism business. The result is predictably disastrous:

[T]he number of journalists have fallen drastically while public relations people have multiplied at an even faster rate. In 1980, there were about .45 PR workers per one hundred thousand compared with .36 journalists. In 2008, there were .90 PR people per one hundred thousand compared to .25 journalists. That�s a ratio of more than three-to-one, better equipped, better financed� The dangers are clear. As PR becomes ascendant, private and government interests become more able to generate, filter, distort and dominate the public debate, and do so without knowing it.

In essence, the very people whom the news should be scrutinizing are now the ones firmly in control of it. To illustrate this point, let�s look at Bloomberg�s coverage of the latest outburst of violence at Barrick Gold�s North Mara mine in Tanzania.

African Barrick Gold Plc said police shot dead seven �intruders� at its North Mara mine in Tanzania after hundreds invaded the project armed with machetes, rocks and hammers in the latest fatal confrontation at the site.

Police called to the area �came under sustained attack by approximately 800 criminal intruders who illegally entered the North Mara mine site and attempted to remove ore,� the London- based company said in a statement. �According to information received, a number of intruders sustained gunshot wounds, resulting in seven intruder fatalities and twelve injuries.� [emphasis my own]

This is worse than a single-source story - it�s a press release masquerading as news.  Bloomberg has essentially let Barrick Gold, one of the world�s most reviled corporations with a sordid history of violence, intimidation and environmental neglect, write the story itself.

That�s not just sloppy journalism - it�s propaganda.

colinjfleming@gmail.com

UPDATE

In Bloomberg�s defense, they did run an excellent, well-reported article on the very same mine last year. Interestingly, Bloomberg�s latest piece made only scant mention of it and didn�t include a link.