What's wrong with the American news media? 

By Daniel G. Jennings
web posted November 4, 2002 
 
Bashing and criticizing the news media has become a national
sport in the United States. A whole library full of books attacking
every aspect of the news media has been written and published,
and a small army of commentators including Rush Limbaugh,
Steve Brill and Bill O'Reilly is making a good living attacking the
news media. These observers have done a good job of
identifying many of the symptoms afflicting the news media;
unfortunately, they have failed to diagnose the disease that is
causing them or to offer a cure for it.

Therefore, I shall attempt to identify the disease, the main
problems with the news media, and the way it gathers, reports
and presents the news. I won't offer any solutions, I'll just try to
state what the fundamental problems with the media are and put
them out for discussion. I've identified these problems through
years of working in the media and in my own reading and
watching the news.

The first and most serious problem with our news media is that
of dishonesty. The American news media has become
fundamentally dishonest. In fact, a culture of dishonesty now
prevails in American newsrooms. We can see this in the media's
claims of objectivity: the big three TV networks, the cable news
networks, PBS, the major newspapers, the wire services, and
the news magazines all claim to be objective and unbiased. Yet it
is obvious, to all but the most naïve reader or viewer, that they
are biased in favor of left-wing positions.

Other examples of this dishonesty abound. The news media
claims to champion the underdog and the common people, yet it
espouses and promotes an ideology that is hostile to the values
and beliefs of the common people. Those who work in the news
media claim not to be interested in money or the trappings of
wealth, yet they compete ferociously for huge salaries and the
trappings of wealth. News management claims to champion the
cause of diversity and equality for people of all races, yet CBS
news executives only ran news stories that featured white faces
as veteran CBS newsman Bruce Goldberg revealed in his
excellent book, "Bias."

Going hand in hand with the fundamental dishonesty of America's
news media is the second problem: hypocrisy. The news media
claims to disdain capitalism and profit, yet most media outlets are
part of huge for profit corporations that engage in fierce, often
cutthroat, competition. Media figures draw huge salaries and
their news reporting often reflects the interests of the big
corporations they work for rather than the public interest. The
media claims to operate in the public interest, yet it often
operates in its own interest.

For example, most media professionals favor so-called campaign
finance reform, basically restricting the amount of money political
candidates and their supporters can spend on advertising and
campaigns. The news media claims that its support of such
reform is motivated by a desire for "clean" politics. But, as Rush
Limbaugh has pointed out, restricting campaign funding will
greatly increase the news media's power and influence as it
becomes the sole source of information about political
campaigns.

The third fundamental problem facing the news media is that of
arrogance. Journalists no longer feel bound by the same rules
and values as the rest of us. They feel free not to participate in
their communities, and, even worse, believe that they have a
moral right to force their values upon the rest of us. Many
journalists now feel that they have a moral right to manufacture
stories and distort news coverage in order to promote the causes
they believe in. Some journalists now believe that they are
superior beings who have a right to dictate what the rest of us
believe. To make matters worse, most journalists spend much of
their time and effort trying to impress the media elite so they can
join it to share its wealth and power rather than really trying to
report the news.
 
The dishonesty, hypocrisy and arrogance that is prevalent
throughout America's news media poses a serious danger to our
country's future. A nation like ours needs a free press that is
willing and able to present its citizens with an honest and
unbiased picture of the world around it. There is no way that
today's American news media, which is so dishonest,
hypocritical and arrogant, can fulfill that role.

Daniel G. Jennings is a freelance writer and journalist who lives
and works in Denver, CO. He has worked as a reporter and
editor for daily and weekly newspapers in five states.

Enter Stage Right - http://www.enterstageright.com