“Good-for-you, brussel sprouts journalism” has a fairly idealistic mission – to educate the public on the workings of the state government. This drive encourages private donors to fund The Texas Tribune. Government officials are more wary of the watchdog function of the media. Nonetheless, this type of journalism is very narrow and attracts a very specific niche. As David Carr wrote, “State government would not seem to be the sexiest corner of the realm.”
Carr doesn’t specify what the business model is for The Texas Tribune, nor does he specify how the project will be sustainable. It is unknown as to how many people are on the staff of The Texas Tribune. It seems like every member of its staff abandoned their former publications for the latter.
Carr shows a slight bias in the story, and it shows in the people he chooses to quote. He quoted Emily Ramshaw, a rising reporter of The Tribune, and Brian Thevenot, both of whom had favorable outlooks on the project. When Carr quoted Thevenot, “But this is Texas, a place where people care a lot about their identity and their state,” Carr was saying that Texas is a great place to try this new media model. Carr mentioned newspapers that were unhappy that there was talk of “gaps in reporting,” but he only quoted newspapers that looked favorably to the new project.