Yago: “We Live in a Time When the News Business is Held in Such Low Esteem”

Today on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast we were joined by IFC Media Project (Sundays, 11pmET) host Gideon Yago.

He talked about what he thinks of the current state of the industry.

“Right now we live in a time when the news business is held in such low esteem,” said Yago. “As long as I’ve been working in television broadcast journalism, I can think of half a dozen stories, from the election night in 2000, to the run-up of the Iraq war, to the handling of this financial crisis just to name three, where the media totally missed the boat on the story, or in certain cases was an active participant in disinformation.”

So what can Media Project do to change that? “We would like to be part of provoking the conversation about what the solution is, not just pointing out what the problems are,” he said.

Yago gave his take on the current state of his former employer, MTV. “For me, the heartbreaking thing is the death and loss of MTV News,” he said.

Also discussed: Yago’s thoughts on torture memo coverage, what changes were made from last season and What We Learned This Week (featuring “ladies growth hormones”).

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

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