TV journalist sets off firestorm with blog criticizing the news business

That’s exactly what’s happening in Canada right now.

Kai Nagata recently quit his job as the Quebec Bureau Chief for CTV, and decided to blog about it. The post from the 24-year-old Nagata has set off a firestorm because of his remarks about journalism—specifically TV journalism.

“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,” he writes. “The ends no longer justified the means.”

In the 3,000-word post, Nagata slams the superficiality of TV news (chiefly that people would rather watch Will and Kate than learn about international affairs), admits that he didn’t own a television while working in broadcast journalism, and questions the separation of news and the business of TV news:

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. When you have to balance the interests of your shareholders against the interests of the viewers you supposedly serve, the firewall between the boardroom and the newsroom becomes a very important bulwark indeed.