I was reading the WSJ edit page this morning and saw their editorial about Steve Jobs and his comments re: education and unions from a conference in Austin on Feb. 16. I'll admit, I spewed a bit of coffee at this line (bold mine):
If Apple CEO Steve Jobs had praised teachers unions as the backbone of public education in the U.S., it would have made the front pages. Instead, at an education conference in Austin, Texas, Mr. Jobs offered some constructive criticism of teachers unions and barely anyone noticed. Sounds like news to us.
Barely anyone noticed? Ya gotta be kidding -- this makes me wonder just what the edit page editor for the WSJ is doing with his/her time these days. Jobs comments made a HUGE impact, both in blogs and in the mainstream media. The AP story ran broadly; there were tons of blog discussions, but hey...look at this....the Journal didn't cover the story! Hmm.
The point here is less about what kind of coverage Jobs did or did not create, and more about the fact that the era of "i say it so it must be so" journalism and opinion is coming to an end. In years past, a reputable and trusted pub like the WSJ could make a statement like it did today and be unquestioned by almost anyone who did not have Lexis/Nexus account. Today, we all have something close enough to a research tool to be able to quickly fact check and debunk patently false statements. But, as I've noted before, there seems to be an unending stream of public figures who still believe they are not on the record and they can say one thing yesterday and another today and nobody will notice.
That day is over.