Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay and the former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald (of NSA fame) are all set to launch their $250 million venture that is about creating an ideal newsroom.
However, Bill Keller, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former executive editor of The New York Times has expressed his concerns about how the risks online journalism poses to ethics of the profession.
"The disruptive power of the Internet raises...profound questions about what journalism is becoming, about its essential character and values," he wrote.
Greenwald, whos shot to fame by breaking the news about NSA spying, started his career as an attorney and then later started blogging. His "activistic" approach towards news is also being seen as something that would undermine the quality of journalism.
"I believe the need for impartial journalism is greater than it has ever been," Keller wrote, "because we live now in a world of affinity-based media, where citizens can and do construct echo chambers of their own beliefs. It is altogether too easy to feel 'informed' without ever encountering information that challenges our prejudices."
In a related development, former Rolling Stone editor Eric Bates has joined the venture led by Omidyar and Greenwald. Bates has worked for nearly 10 years for the magazine and have edited stories related to politics and national security.
Other journalists who have joined the venture include Andrew Jerell Jones, Micah Lee, Ryan Devereaux, Dan Froomkin and Liliana Segura.
