Mar 26, 2015 3 min read

T-Rex, Dino, Brontosaurus.

That’s how some signed the emails written to me about last week’s column, in which I criticized the self-referencing, it’s-all-about-me interview tactics of the morning show hosts.

At last count, about a dozen readers wrote to me, all concurring with my complaint, and also saying you are one with me in extinction. I said my lack of appreciation for the me-me-me news approach makes me a dinosaur.

It’s good to know I’m not the only one. There are a few of us beasts still roaming the land.

Since writing the column, I’ve been thinking about whether I’m right or whether I’m just out of step with the times. I understand (and in fact, am always reminding my university students) advertising drives all news and media content, and most advertising is aimed at people younger than I am. I passed “sexy young consumer” 15 years ago.

Young people see news hosts and journalists as celebrities; it’s evident in how ratings dictate what the hosts wear, how they behave and what they talk about. If having “Today’s” Savannah Guthrie talk about and show photos of her baby gets more young people to watch, then bring the baby on the set.

Why don’t I connect with that? I have kids; they started out as babies, and I really liked them. I worry that I’m getting harder as I get older. If I were 30 now, would I think better of these shows?

Not as a journalist. Yes, the world is changing, and nowhere has the change been more profound than in communication and media.

But certain tenets of journalism remain in stone and must be impervious to the changing cultural landscape or to the whims of increasingly celebrity-hungry viewers.

What are the tenets? Tell the truth. Stay independent of those you cover and interview. Keep yourself out of it.

Commerce and ratings will try to chip away at that rock, and we dinosaurs must throw our long, spiky tails over that rock to protect it. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Another rule of journalism is to seek out all sides of an issue. I thought about my much younger self. Weren’t there programs or trends I enjoyed, but that my parents and grandparents thought crass, or silly, or even destructive?

Yes, of course there were. They call that the generation gap.

But I keep coming back to that rock and the dinosaurs. There’s a difference between thinking like you’re old and out of step, and knowing certain things are just not right. And the way these news shows cross the line is not right.

Come to think of it, dinosaur is the wrong metaphor. Those of us who value good interviewing and reporting aren’t extinct; we just feel like we’re headed that way.

So let’s call ourselves Borneo pygmy elephants instead. They are wise and empathetic, but they are being crowded out by progress. There are fewer than 2,000 of them left on the planet.

I know how they feel.

Beth Dolinar can be reached at cootiej@aol.com.