The News About the News Part 1

The book begins with an introduction to news, and its effects in history. The first half discusses its positive effects, such as finding truths in the Watergate scandal, and ultimately leading to Nixon’s resignation. News is able to provide information, facts, and images which give readers and viewers an explanation and something to hold onto. The authors also make the point that communities will be able to improve due to the exposure of incompetence and corruption that may be taking place. Although these are very beneficial to history and the progression of justice and stability, there are many cases of bad journalism which do the opposite. There is a discussion of journalism that fails to report news or reports news that is inaccurate, shallow, and unfair. This type of journalism has the ability to leave people “dangerously misinformed.” They strengthen their point when they talk about how the tobacco industry has repeatedly tried to cover up evidence about its products being cancer causing and addicting. They also discuss how the lack of coverage for government elections will allow citizens to be mislead by other political advertising.
Kaiser and Downie Jr. also brought to my awareness the fact that so many news media corporations have reduced their coverage of foreign affairs. What has taken its place is “lazy, superficial, mindless chat and debate.” Because newspapers have grown to be even more controlled by giant corporations, there has been a decrease in the belief that Americans need good journalism. Reporting staffs have shrunk and so has the time devoted to news, as a way of increasing profits. Most publishers have forced their editors to report on lesser important matters as a way to attract readers, and advertisers. As a result serious matters around the world are not being talked about. What is even more bothersome is the fact that TV reporters are shrinking as well for the same reasons. TV stations attract viewers with violence, entertainment, melodrama, and “happy talk.”

It is really unsettling to think about how much more typical bad news is to see, and how much less relevant, important news is seen. The corporations are not the only reason for this, however. Technology has played a major role in the decrease of newspaper sales. Because of multiplying cable channels and internet sites, the news is available all the time. This increases competition throughout and in turn news becomes more enticing, more fabricated, tasteless, and often unjust.

All of these factors undermine journalism in a monumental way. Kaiser and Downie Jr. focus on the downfall of newspapers, news on TV and the publics growing desire for lesser important matters. It is refreshing that these authors worked for the Washington Post and truly care about substantial, truthful and informative journalism. I only hope that more people will come to realize the importance of valid journalism and report stories which truly do matter.






Part 2

The chapter entitled “The Network News” begins with Dan Rather watching an old broadcast he did in 1981. Rather is shocked realizing how different the news is today. He watches an eighty second report on San Salvador, a four minute story about a power struggle in the Reagan administration, and then a story about Poland. Rather says that now there would never be so much foreign news, nor would they start with them. He goes on to say that “If he tried to do a similar newscast now, CBS executives would tell him, ‘Dan, you cannot lead with El Salvador and take the broadcast through an inside Washington struggle and go to a piece about Poland…There was a time when you could do that, 1981 was the time. But if you do it today, you die, and we die.’”
Kaiser and Downie Jr. tell us how between 1981 and 2001 Brokaw, Jennings, and Rather lost 40 percent of their audience. This is due to the increase of competition with cable and satellite services. Because of this increased competition there was pressure to report more “interesting,” attention grabbing bits of information. This information has generally been more superficial, unimportant, and irrelevant. News reports rarely last more than two minutes now, and are faster paced. Since 1981 the length of news dropped from 23:20 to 18:20, thus allowing more than 10 minutes of commercials and “teases,” which were previews of what was to come in between commercials. It is so sad that this is what has become of networks broadcasts. It is also kind of insulting that there has been a diminished confidence that the public can retain an attention span longer than two minutes.
With Tom Brokaw, we are shown the little information that he had to report during the time of this books production. He reported stories of wildfires, tornados which injured no one, and a patient undergoing open heart surgery who survived the procedure. These stories all had vivid imagery which was attention grabbing, however, there was really no news in any of these stories. What is most startling is that within this report, the only foreign news was the twenty-second read about Pope John Paul II turning eighty.
During the segment on Peter Jennings, he is asked how ABC New overseas has changed. He says, “Much slimmer, much slimmer. If I recall correctly, off the top of my head, we then had correspondents…in London, Paris , Rome, Frankfurt, Tel Aviv, Cairo, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Johannesburg….Today, London but no Frankfurt to speak of. No Rome. No Cairo. No Hong Kong.” It goes on to say that if there is interest in reporting in a different country the accounting department automatically wants to know in advance how much it is going to cost. “The networks attitude toward spending money had changed profoundly,” says Jennings.