Your mainstream media: Dumb and getting dumber

We're already talked a bit here about the Washington Post's dumbfounding firing of its popular blogger Dan Froomkin. A passionate critic of the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration's broken promises to undo Bush-era abuses, and the failings of the Beltway press corps, Froomkin was exactly what newsroom bosses claim they seek in striving to survive in a new millennium: A newsman who's always hard-charging, never boring, with a devoted online community of readers.

So of course when he was fired by a rapidly dying, rotten at the core institution like the Post, he was snatched up by a still growing. up-and-coming organization that may not have perfected its business model but at least at the most basic level of saving journalism, "gets it."

In yet another sign of how online media outlets are strengthening as their older establishment predecessors are struggling to survive, The Huffington Post has hired Dan Froomkin to be its Washington Bureau Chief and regular columnist/blogger.  Froomkin will oversee a staff of four reporters and an Assistant Editor, guide The Huffington Post's Washington reporting, and write at least two posts per week to be featured on its main page and Politics page. 

In breaking this news, well-connected blogger Glenn Greenwald gives some insightful analysis to what it all means:

Clearly, journalism itself is not dying.  What is dying -- and rightfully so -- is the staid, establishment-serving, passion-free, access-desperate, mindless stenographic model to which establishment journalism rigidly adheres.  As The Post's Ombudsman reported from personal experience, Froomkin's firing left "an army of angry followers" and "an outcry from a loyal audience."  People are obviously hungry for the type of real journalism Froomkin practices.  The Huffington Post immediately capitalized on the Post's short-sighted and myopic decision to fire one of their most vibrant, passionate and innovative journalists.  In this episode lies many insights about the real reasons establishment journalism is struggling severely.

I wish we could have somehow given some thought here in Philly to hiring Froomkin -- for a lot of reasons.