Celebrity Has Killed Television News
In his sarcastic song about TV news, singer Don Henley wrote in his song, “Dirty Laundry:”
“Well, I coulda been an actor but I wound up here. I just have to look good, I don’t have to be clear.”
How true.
As someone who had an early career as a correspondent in network television news, I have seen a couple of things recently that really underscore the dramatic decline of meaningful television journalism in less than 25 years, with few exceptions. I’m talking about the sharp transition of reporters from being curious and inquisitive news people to today’s crop of so-called reporters who seemingly have the news talent of a stone.
President Ronald Reagan explaining arms to Contras.
In the excellent PBS series about America presidents, I was struck by how ABC’s Sam Donaldson and other journalists shouted pointed questions at then-President Ronald Reagan in an attempt to get him to come clean about back room deals with Iran and arms to the Contras.
No one shouts at any president like that today. But then, it was all part of the media’s role in getting the story.
Thanks to aggressive journalism, we knew a lot more about what’s going on in our country than today.
It all changed when the networks put news under the thumb of their entertainment divisions and local TV stations followed the trend. There was more money to be made from news-as-entertainment than news-as-meaningful-journalism.
Journalism at a low level
Spin forward to a couple of weeks ago and to Capitol Hill in Washington. I attended an informal meeting in a Senate hearing room. A reporter and cameraman from a New Orleans TV station were parked outside, leaning against a table. I said, “Hey, it’s an open meeting … come on in.” The reporter declined, saying she would just get comments from people as they left. Checking out her looks with the mirror of a compact, she seemed more concerned with being spoon-fed summary comments than bothering to listen to detailed discussion in a public meeting.
That’s where we are today – TV media more interested in lookin’ good, a 14 second soundbite, video of people walking down a hallway as well as aftermath of dramatic events – car wrecks, bank robberies. Non-stories.
Fox Network News, part of the conservative propaganda machine owned by Australia media magnate Rupert Murdoch, still breaks into programming to air local police chases of stolen cars. Who cares?!
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You hit the nail on the head with this one. I was with you all the way up until the last sentence. Found it unnecessary to declare Fox News part of the conservative propaganda machine. Not that it is not, mind you, although most of the day it is news, not opinion shows that are really conservative in nature, without also stating the obvious connection between NBC, MSNBC for example and the liberal, dare I say now, progressive propaganda machine. Even NPR is regrettably part of that machine, and I have to my disdain seen car chases on all of the major news networks. Television news, whether you get it from the left or right, is not worthy of its past, and they do no one a service. And lets not get started on the print media when they brought opinion pieces to the front page.
News reporting will always have some bias based on the expectations and beliefs of the reporter. So the present trend is to go all the way and report the news that will provide the reporter and their network the best return on investment, either financially or politically. It is all very Ayn Rand like in its execution. In the decade past I would say that any reporter who makes the effort to provide an unbiased report was branded as a progressive liberal (of the worst sort?). It takes an effort to provide an unbiased report and if there is no reward for trying to meet the goal of some abstract concept of what is right and what is wrong, why do it?
I agree with John. I think that in the past, if you even try to give both sides to a story, you’re given the title of a progressive liberal. It’s simply the fact that they see it as a bad thing is what makes it worse. Everything is so biased nowadays you can’t tell what is the real news versus what they feed into your mind as right and wrong.
While we celebrate rappers that degrade women and cherish money and killing others who are in the same position as them above all else, we lose the sense of what is actually important.