A lot of people don’t trust the media, but back in the days when Clark Kent was a reporter, working for a newspaper was certainly considered a noble day gig for the man of steel.
If Superman was about truth, justice and the American way, newspapers were supposed to be about searching for the same things.
Back in the 70’s many people wanted to be reporters after Woodward and Bernstein became household names. It also didn’t hurt that a lot of people confused them with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman when All the President’s Men became a movie in 1976. But again, with the rise of the tabloid culture in recent times, many people still don’t like or trust the press.
This isn’t the reason why Superman is throwing in the towel as a reporter, he’s definitely one of the guys who brings honor to what many consider a dishonorable profession. But according to a report on FoxNews, Superman is indeed going to quit working at the Daily Planet. This news hit a week after Newsweek announced they would be shutting down their print edition, and as FoxNews reports, “Even Clark Kent can see through the writing on the wall when it comes to the newspaper industry.”
There’s even speculation that Superman could take to the blogosphere. Scott Lobdell, who writes for Superman, told FoxNews that Kent could possibly “come into his own in the next few years as far as being a guy who takes to the internet and the airwaves and starts speaking an unvarnished truth.”
In the FoxNews story, they ran a panel from the new Superman comic where he’s wearing a Smallville hoodie, and in his typically heroic way he wonders, “Why am I the one sounding like a grizzled ink-stained wretch who believes news should be about – I don’t know, news?” Then Perry White tells him, “Go easy on us mortals, Clark. Times are changing and print is a dying medium.”
Considering I believe that journalism is an important thing, and wish there were more outlets for writers these days, it disturbs me that even someone as powerful Superman thinks the current state of the medium is something he can’t save.
