One oddity of being a journalist these days is that non-journalists are always critiquing the profession. It isn’t only Donald Trump. Many see broadsheet newspapers and public-sector broadcasters as a liberal cartel that cooks up “ fake news”. But few of our accusers understand our everyday working practices. That’s normal: hardly anyone knows much about life in other professions. I’ve only the vaguest idea of how people in construction or advertising do their jobs, or how they think of themselves. Below I have responded to common charges against contemporary upmarket journalism by explaining how it actually works day by day.
現如今幹記者這行，總遇到的一個怪現象是：不是記者的人總在對記者評頭論足。不僅僅是唐納•川普(Donald Trump)。許多人都認爲大報和公共廣播電視臺是一個炮製「假新聞」的自由派卡特爾。但指責我們的人鮮有人瞭解我們每天是怎麼工作的。這很正常，大家幾乎都不怎麼了解其他職業的日常。比如對於建築業或廣告業的人是怎麼工作的，或者他們怎麼看待自己，我就知之甚少。下面，我要通過解釋一下當代上流新聞業的真實日常，來回應人們對這一行的一些普遍指責。