When I majored in Journalism in college, we were taught that it was our responsibility to be the watchdog of the government and the entities we covered. Nowadays, journalists and media networks are in bed with the entities they cover on a daily basis, and fair and accurate reporting has taken a back seat to advertising revenue and appeasing stakeholders.
It should be there for the public good. News should not be confused with entertainment and vice versa, but it is today.
It is a two edged sword. The audience craves entertainment, “are we not entertained?” The business of delivering information seeks viewers to entertain. The business people segment their audience and cater different content to different segments. The business people hire the content providers for their news departments and some of these people are great at their jobs others aren’t worth a damn. But it’s always been a business first. Daddy has to get paid.
Sometimes people get sued over what they’ve printed or televised. Sometimes people are motivated to do stupid and harmful things by something they’ve read. Is the writer culpable for having inspired a criminal act? These kinds of situations get regulated in court eventually. I don’t think anyone has ever died just from reading (maybe a number of poor bastards had heart attacks after reading something shocking).
Did we decide it’s OK or did we just give up and become cynical. I think as the news formats expanded and accessibility grew it first became over-saturated and the it became polarizing. That’s why you can go back to the fairness doctrine as you mentioned and the advent of 24 hours news channels and advance to now when any yahoo with a cell phone can have his own news channel and you can’t help but fear the future. In theory, I’m not sure if there is more of a bullshit to truth ratio in media today than there ever was. There is just a shit ton more avenues to drive down.
I think that’s a distinction without a difference. We’ve simply acquiesced to it, for whatever reasons.
This is the reasoning behind repealing the Fairness Doctrine. When one only had a single newspaper, or perhaps a couple of radio or TV channels from which to be informed, it was viewed as important that those sources both presented issues of public importance and presented both sides of the issue. With the advent of cable and 24 hours news, people had many more choices, and it wasn’t considered an undue burden on the public to find whatever slant they wanted. The problem with this is two fold: 1) it meant that individuals and corporations could use “news” outlets for their own personal political campaigning, and 2) people never had to be exposed to “other” side of an issue, if they didn’t want to be. News became tribal. You are either a Fox or a CNN guy. News became opinion driven rather than fact driven.
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Great summary.
Damn, you are powerful and interesting. I wish you were one of our leaders.
Honestly, he displays too many authoritarian tendencies for my comfort.
I just want someone to make my trains run on time.
Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day.
Spack is a benevolent overlord but an overlord nevertheless.
FWIW, Nancy Armour’s twitter link to her story got a large ratio and the expected amount of negative feedback.
What can I say, I’m all about law and order.
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I said it before. You got my vote.
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Those who were around when Reid Ryan was hired remember the train wreck that was going on when Crane was out in front. With Ryan gone, we are back to the issues that where present when Crane was doing all the talking. Ryan’s moving on was a bigger loss to the org than any free agent not signed.
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Reid Ryan is a genius at PR. I still cannot understand where he was when the clusterfuck happened during the celebration and immediately after the NYY Game Six win. If that does not happen or if the org reacts appropriately, we win the WS, I think. Fucking karma got us in Game Seven.
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I grimaced at the name, but clicked anyway. They lost me at “America’s favorite …”
I wonder what Bob will think when he finds out that the Yankees were just as guilty.
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He’s very reasonable in that article, imo, at least in terms of the Astros.
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