"I'm a smarmy intellect from a Baltimore newspaper, ya'see?"

Advancements in technology are not without loss. With the rise of all new things comes the death of others. Typewriters, newspapers, religion, the album, etc.

But last week I pieced together a tragic, tangential, unintended consequence of our fracturing media landscape. Namely, the death of the grizzled, veteran, hard-nosed reporter protagonist.

Among books, TV, and movies, this character, and this genre is no longer viable. More scary, of course, is that this is a direct result of this “character” fading from the real world as well.

Being a newspaperman used to mean something. Ask David Simon. It was a position of unique independence that encouraged and rewarded those brave and sharp enough to challenge power—whether it was the corruption and inhumane practices of an entire industry or the machinations of a power-hungry president. 

We all know the archetype: rumpled, ornery, rabble-rousers who drank too much and didn’t care who they offended. But they were heros! Guided by a set of principles that had nothing to do with ratings or whether the holding company would approve! The stress of bringing the truth! The honor with accuracy! The deadlines! The late nights seeking out answers! For us!

But as I recently, and coincidentally, in sequence, just witnessed through the last two weeks of my Netflix features, there is no way the storied, fictional depictions of reporters from countless books, television, and film can survive the internet—much like the plight of their very non-fictional counterparts.

As contemporaries, we can image the life of serfs in kingdom’s past or the nuances of royalty from centuries gone, but it’s entirely feasible that generations to come will have no frame of reference for Gene Kelly’s E.K Hornbeck in Inherit the Wind, Dustin and Rob’s portrayal of Carl and Bob in All the President’s Men, Al Pacino’s “60 Minutes” producer Lowell Bergman in The Insider or Sally Field’s Meg Carter in Absence of Malice. How tragic!

Who will fill this vacancy in future entertainment? Power Digg users?

Perhaps I’m being paranoid, if not a bit nostalgic, in my wolf-crys of doom for the “news media” entertainment genre. But if the  ”reporter trumps THE MAN” protagonist disappears entirely from our cultural worldview who or what will inspire the next generation of fearless muckrakers?

Or perhaps our descent into journ-a-tainment is already complete and they are all applying for internships at TMZ.