Our media have become mass producers of distortion- The Guardian

[Ichingcarpenter]

Our media have become mass producers of distortion


An industry whose task should be to filter out falsehood has become a conduit for propaganda and second hand news

Nick Davies
Monday February 4, 2008
The Guardian


SNIP>>>>
I commissioned research from specialists at Cardiff University, who surveyed more than 2,000 UK news stories from the four quality dailies (Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Independent) and the Daily Mail. They found two striking things. First, when they tried to trace the origins of their "facts", they discovered that only 12% of the stories were wholly composed of material researched by reporters. With 8% of the stories, they just couldn't be sure. The remaining 80%, they found, were wholly, mainly or partially constructed from second-hand material, provided by news agencies and by the public relations industry. Second, when they looked for evidence that these "facts" had been thoroughly checked, they found this was happening in only 12% of the stories.

The implication of those two findings is truly alarming. Where once journalists were active gatherers of news, now they have generally become mere passive processors of unchecked, second-hand material, much of it contrived by PR to serve some political or commercial interest. Not journalists, but churnalists. An industry whose primary task is to filter out falsehood has become so vulnerable to manipulation that it is now involved in the mass production of falsehood, distortion and propaganda.

And the Cardiff researchers found one other key statistic that helps to explain why this has happened. For each of the 20 years from 1985, they dug out figures for the editorial staffing levels of all the Fleet Street publications and compared them with the amount of space they were filling. They discovered that the average Fleet Street journalist now is filling three times as much space as he or she was in 1985. In other words, as a crude average, they have only one-third of the time that they used to have to do their jobs. Generally, they don't find their owns stories, or check their content, because they simply don't have the time.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2251982,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

[Judi Lynn]

1. Glad the Guardian published this. If only they knew how many of us are furious & sick of them. n/t

[bemildred]

2. Yes, and it is sooooo obvious.

And meanwhile these fools wonder why they are losing market share?

[Locrian]

3. I know it was a movie...

I know "All the Presidents Men" was a movie - but I remember watching it and thinking there is NO WAY they could do the same thing today. No body is given the time to do their job or actually investigate anything.

[libodem]

4. Not surprised

but what does surprise me is, gasbaglimbaugh, calling the press the "drive by media", everyday, still calling it the liberal media. I don't see any liberal bias. Conservatives make me sick. News has become a prepackaged script of what the cheneybush wants us to believe.