During last Fridays press conference with Gov. Walz, the prospect of a statewide “Shelter In Place” order, rumors of which have been percolating for a while, got broached. The concept of “essential workers” – people who are allowed out and about without getting hassled – got broached.
Some were obvious – first responders, healthcare workers, people who work in grocery stores, pharmacies, in the supply chain, and similar businesses.
One of the reporters asked “and journalists?”
“Of course”, Walz responded, to a smattering of clubby chuckles.
But the questions keep popping up, especially on journos social media: they see themselves as genuinely essential.
Let’s ignore whether journalism is what journalists say it is, anymore – more on that in a piece coming up tomorrow morning.
The extent to which journos seem to need to think of themselves as class above and beyond the proles strikes me as a little unseemly.
I’m asking:
When you hear journalists scrambling to get themselves counted as “essential” workers, rather than mere lumpen proles, what jumps to mind?
— Mitch “Socially Distant” Berg (@mitchpberg) March 23, 2020
The four options in the poll strike me as about even.
It’s your turn!
Animal Farm, “Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others.”
I don’t think it’s fair you put Major Burns there. He was stupid and arrogant, but his work actually helped people, even people he didn’t like. You can’t say the same about the media.
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OK, so we’re going to let liberal journalists who smoke and are vulnerable to these diseases go out there and get infected and suffer with COVID-19….help me out here, is there a down side?
Seriously, I can see a few out there reporting accurately about the issues….ah, that might be a vain hope, too. Never mind. :^)
How will we know what a “journalist” is, or who they are? In this time of emergency, particularly, we need to protect the public from inept or incompetent scribblers who would disseminate misleading and incorrect information under the guise of “journalism.”
That’s exactly why government imposes testing and licensing requirements on everybody from accountants and electricians to hair dressers and plumbers. Plainly, Governor Walz need to immediately institute an emergency system to license responsible journalists, so we can shut down the rest.
Off tangent, but how will grocery workers be essential, if non-essential people can’t go to the store?
Not really a tangent, Loren.
Going to the store is considered an acceptable trip in everyplace I’m aware of that’s locked down, although in some of the more authoritarian places those trip are tracked – “rationed”, if you will.