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.
现如今干记者这行，总遇到的一个怪现象是：不是记者的人总在对记者评头论足。不仅仅是唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)。许多人都认为大报和公共广播电视台是一个炮制“假新闻”的自由派卡特尔。但指责我们的人鲜有人了解我们每天是怎么工作的。这很正常，大家几乎都不怎么了解其他职业的日常。比如对于建筑业或广告业的人是怎么工作的，或者他们怎么看待自己，我就知之甚少。下面，我要通过解释一下当代上流新闻业的真实日常，来回应人们对这一行的一些普遍指责。