Farhi posted, “Someone invented the phrase ‘citizen journalism’ a few years ago to describe amateurs doing the work of pros. Yes, it occasionally works, but probably no more often than ‘citizen cop,’ ‘citizen attorney’ or ‘citizen soldier.’”
There’s a lot to unpack here, starting with the idea of citizen versus professional journalist. When professional journalists at Newsweek sat on the Monica Lewinsky story, trying to figure out how to minimize the damage to their great white hope then-president Bill Clinton, a citizen journalist broke the story — perhaps the biggest of the decade. When professional journalists attempted to kill the John Edwards story, the National Enquirer ran with it and effectively ended any political ambitions Edwards may have had.
Citizen journalists are likely the reason Kyle Rittenhouse was cleared of a life prison sentence. It was the cameras from journalists at smaller outlets like the Daily Caller and Washington Examiner that caught the exchanges between Rittenhouse and rioters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on video and showed Rittenhouse acted out of self-defense. It wasn’t CNN or NBC cameras.
Those are just a few examples…
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