pussy cat journalism

Is when journalists of established or reputable news organizations (like The Wall Street Journal, BBC or Washington Post) or smaller news reporting organizations (like the Kansas City Star or The Salem Daily News) fail to ask critical questions or raise important issues in their reporting; usually of controversial subject matter. The phrase is borrowed from observing the behavior of domesticated cats: It is used to describe how a cat may become accustomed to food from a bag or can, and thereby, its walking circle becomes a smaller path. For example, from the place where it lounges to the place where the food is set out in a dish. This cat no longer looks under bushes and hides in a tree. It is satisfied with the little effort, and enjoys snoozing whenever it can. When comparing a native cat, their walking-about path is much larger. They might not return home for days. They enjoy spending time outdoors and scrutinizing things longer. Whereas a domesticated cat knows where to look for food, the native or natural cat might spend more time looking and actually forgo eating, to stay in place, waiting for the right bird to come along. "Pussy cat journalism" is used to describe the least path of resistance, to get the story. And because of this, the story is usually one sided or one dimensional and many important questions are not raised or dealt with in the reporting. Often times, this type of journalism is a bias journalism. It is also attributed to socialist or communist type reporting, where the reporting is favorable to the ruling government. The worst forms of "Pussy Cat Journalism" occur when a paper or news agency, continually fails to raise critical questions or deal with important subjects, in a comprehensive manner; ie: deliberately omitting to report the full story.