What does “We Are Journalists” say about journalism?

You’ve probably seen this Tumblr blog doing the rounds at the moment: a collection of contributions from journalists around the world under the 99% inspired banner “We Are Journalists”.

Like the 99% they have a set of demands - a manifesto for what they are trying to say.

And I’ll be honest: it doesn’t paint a very good picture for journalism. 

Here’s a breakdown.

We are journalists. We are proud of what we do. We are tired of bad press about the press.

For “bad press about the press” read “change”. 

We are trying to be “team players.”

“Team players” is in quote marks hinting at a sarcastic lack of respect for the idea of team working.

We are terrified of more layoffs and paycuts.

They can’t see beyond the mainstream media bubble for all the amazing new kinds of journalism being innovated right now. They see fear instead of opportunity. 

We would like to produce quality work without ‘obamasux99’ posting some non-sequitur rant at the end of it. 

They have no respect for commenters, social media, or any form of two-way journalism. They want to write and be listened to like the old days.

We complain because we want things to be better.

They think complaining about something is how you make it better, not adjusting to changing times.

We would like some respect, plz.

They would like the internet to go away and for things to go back to how they were before, plz.

We are journalists.

So am I. But they don’t speak for me.