Journalism and Celebrity

The Mind of A Journalist included a passage asserting that there is a difference between people who become celebrities because of their ability and people who happen to be famous and so are assumed (possibly falsely) to have great ability. This can be applied directly to journalism. Some journalists obtain celebrity status (and thus, influence) because they have spent years building a reputation of quality work and integrity. Others seem to desire celebrity more than they desire to make quality contributions to society. 

Celebrity journalists seem to achieve the effects they desire.Some, like Walter Cronkite and Nick Kristoff bring important attention and insight into complex issues like the Vietnam War and sex trafficking. Cronkite's commitment to producing quality work that helped the public is evident in this American Masters description of his attitude when he  accepted the anchor position at CBS' television newscast:

 At the time, the broadcast — like the news broadcasts of the other networks — was just 15 minutes long. But Cronkite wanted the networks to be responsible citizens, to take the news more seriously, to devote more time and more funds to news — whether that commitment made them a profit or not. He also wanted the title of Managing Editor so that the staff and the audience would know that the news judgment on the program was his.

By contrast, Anderson Cooper's segment "The Ridiculist" seems like a step in the opposite direction. He is taking time that could be devoted to quality journalism and using it for humor instead.

I hesitate to bring up Anderson Cooper because he seems like the easy, go-to target for celebrity journalism criticism., but I don't see many celebrity journalists out there, so my pickings for examples are slim. These days, celebrity journalists are almost always on television, even then, they are almost always on national programs. The amount of celebrity journalists compared to the amount of journalists who have a fairly local recognition base is so one-sided that this seems like a theoretical issue more than a practical one.