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Last night, I cited a Pew Research poll which found that a majority of Americans perceived the news media as biased and inaccurate, a sharp increase from the numbers of a previous poll taken in 1985. When asked why she thought this was, CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien responded that it was the glut of information sources available to Americans, and that perhaps it was a positive development because the news media IS biased and inaccurate and this means Americans are becoming more vigilant about their news consumption.
A glaring omission from Mrs. O'Brien's answer was the larger changes in the news media, such as the convergence of mainstream media outlets and the rise of ratings-driven news broadcasts.
When I returned home after the lecture, I watched one of my favorite movies, Paddy Chayefsky's 1976 masterpiece, Network. When Chayefsky wrote Network, it was intended to be a black comedy, a "what if" scenario in which "mad man" Howard Beale anchors a bizarro version of the network news in which ratings and entertainment trump any journalistic integrity. This was the creation of Diana Christensen, a network executive charged with the task of lifting the struggling news show's ratings.
While Chayefsky intended his screenplay to be sarcastic and sardonic, today, it can be viewed as more of a docudrama, an embodiment of why news broadcasts should be freed from the rigors of competing for viewers and advertising revenue. Mrs. O'Brien should take note of this film, because it explains much more about why American's trust in the news media has dwindled in recent decades.
The mainstream news outlets, especially those broadcasting on television, have become corporate creations, driven more by a race for market share than by a thirst for hard-hitting reporting. Corporate ownership of the major network and cable news outlets has watered down their coverage of international events and caused them to omit news events that reflect poorly on the business-friendly economics of neo-liberalism, which have ravaged the developing world. These policies create leaders like Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran, whom the news media demonize on a consistent basis.
But this criticism of the corporate news media is nothing new, Chayefsky wrote about this three decades ago. When Howard Beale raged about a business deal between the corporation that owned his network and Saudi Arabia, the CEO, Arthur Jensen, called him into his office and explained to Beale the way things were:
"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it. Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal? That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity. It is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations; there are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems; one vast, interwoven, interacting, multivaried, multinational dominion of dollars."
Perhaps it is more than just "so much information" that has made Americans perceive the news media as bias and inaccurate, Mrs. O'Brien. Perhaps it is a willingness to sacrifice journalistic integrity for advertising revenue, ethics for ratings, independence for funding. Perhaps Diana Christensen said it best, "If you're going to hustle, at least do it right."
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