A thoughtful Canadian . . .

KAI NAGATA QUIT HIS JOB. He was CTV’s Quebec City Bureau Chief, based at the National Assembly, mostly covering politics. In many ways, a dream job in Canadian news broadcasting, especially for his age.

I quit my job because the idea burrowed into my mind that, on the long list of things I could be doing, television news is not the best use of my short life. The ends no longer justified the means.

Kai goes on to outline his discontent. He has interesting observations:

TV news is a curious medium. You don’t always know whose interests are being served – or ignored.
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Consider Fox News. What the Murdoch model demonstrated was that facts and truth could be replaced by ideology, with viewership and revenue going up. Simply put, you can tell less truth and make more money.
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People like low-nutrition TV, too. And that shapes the internal, self-regulated editorial culture of news.
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I admit felt a profound discomfort working in an industry that so casually sexualizes its workforce. Every hiring decision is scrutinized using a skewed, unspoken ratio of talent to attractiveness, where attractiveness often compensates for a glaring lack of other qualifications.

Worth the read. H/T to Bruce and Scanner, parts of the ad hoc civilian intelligence network, so to speak.