There comes a moment in the life of every filthy hack when he finally realizes what business he’s actually in – not the glamorous, rollicking newsman’s life depicted in movies like The Front Page and His Girl Friday; not the grandiose investigative heroics of All the President’s Men and The Insider; but rather the grubby business of attracting an audience to whom advertising messages can be shown, and performing this task for a tiny fraction of the money your organization intends to generate from those advertisements. In other words, you are a whore. And not even a well-paid one.
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There comes a moment in the life of every filthy hack when he finally realizes what business he’s actually in – not the glamorous, rollicking newsman’s life depicted in movies like The Front Page and His Girl Friday; not the grandiose investigative heroics of All the President’s Men and The Insider; but rather the grubby business of attracting an audience to whom advertising messages can be shown, and performing this task for a tiny fraction of the money your organization intends to generate from those advertisements. In other words, you are a whore. And not even a well-paid one.
—Fake Steve Jobs, the nation’s best media pundit by far. FSJ is, of course, Forbes journalist Daniel Lyons, who no doubt understands the intricacies of media and advertising as well as anyone, which makes this quote all the more telling, if not bittersweet.