On September 10, Betsy Ashton moderated a discussion of the Past, Present and Future of Television News for C-SPAN's American Perspectives series. Her guests were Walter Cronkite and Brian Williams. Here's something from all three of them that made me laugh and then scream. Then I got dizzy and had to rest.
Ashton observed that the history of American journalism is rooted in pamphleteering, which was openly biased. In light of the advent of FOX news she asked:
Are we going back to the old style where everyone is going to be watching a liberal group, a conservative group, tune in what you want?
Cronkite: I do think it's an unfortunate trend, if it is a trend. And I don't believe it is yet a trend, but the idea of a news organization whether it's print or broadcast identifying itself as being in one camp or the other in the opinion area. You know that's one of the faults of print and broadcasting around the world that we have avoided so far in this country pretty well. Around the rest of the world broadcasting and particuly newpapers are most frequently owned and published by frequently a religion or a political cause or what not and they freely label themselves as such. So what you do in those countries in order to get a balanced idea of the news is that you subscribe or buy one paper on the right, one paper on the left, one paper that's Catholic, one that is Protestant. You have to do your own balancing. I'd hate to see that happening in the United States. And I'd llike to think that the Murdoch approach to broadcasting is not catching, has not spread itself through the rest of our business.
Williams: The part of the new trend that breaks my heart is that people coming up right now don't understand that we were all trained under standards. The great blue book of standards, authored largely by Dick Salant, Richard S. Salant, the president of CBS news, continues to be, I think, the best North Star in our industry for what I do, along with things like the AP style book for questions that pertain to that. What saddens me about this new trend is that people perhaps may not know that there are rules that govern our behavior. [and here he turns into Zen Master Brian] I choose to go using the way that Len Downy has always run a newsroom. I choose to go a step further. You know, I don't believe in things like speaking for money or ever ever ever letting political opinion seep into what I do, on duty or off. I hold these things very closely.
I was on the floor of the RC coming into the fourth night. A journalist friend came up to me and he said, "Did you hear? SRT beat the three networks last night." And I said, "I have no idea what you're talking about." And he said, "State Run Television. Fox." This was a first time for me. I had never heard that term. Obviously, a derogatory term for Fox. His meaning was, of course, that the faithful now have their network. A network that matches their ideology. And I've heard it said that this is a bad thing, these boutique, kind of customized networks. To wake up every morning and turn on the network that already agrees with you. Think of what that will do to the human mind and American discourse in the United States over time.
You could already argue that the internet - that now if you have a modem and an opinion, in many cases, you're a journalist. [woo hoo! I'm a journalist!] And is the internet good or bad for the discourse? Is it making us feifdoms of one in our own homes with our computers? Is it counter to the idea of the town square approach to journalism that a lot of us believe the founders both of the nation and of journalism had in mind? Part of my job is to ask questions so I'll leave you with those to ponder.
[snip]
Cronkite: I will say about the internet situation. I cannot undestand how the internet should have gotten so entirely oblivious to the whole idea of libel and slander. How is it possible for these people to get on the air with any allegation they want to make as if it were true? As if they were journalists, which they are clearly are not [Rats. I'm not a journalist]. They're slander mongers. Why in the world has nobody brought them to the bar of justice?
Ashton: Maybe becuase there's too many of them doing it constantly.
Is that the most confused, pompous, insecure and misinformed conversation you've read in a month? We want a town square approach to journalism, as long as the square is closed to the public, who are slander mongers and most definitely not journalists. Consolidation of media outlets in the hands of a very few corporate interests isn't a problem like those internet people are. We want balance as long as we provide the balance because Americans can't be trusted or counted on to seek out alternative views on their own.
Williams is especially infuriating with his pontificating and handwringing over the state of the human mind. Remember, this is the same Brian Williams who interviewed Al Sharpton after his Democratic convention speech by saying this:
MATTHEWS: Let‘s go right now and let‘s hear some more from Al Sharpton, care of Brian Williams, who has him right now on the floor.
Go ahead, Brian.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC ANCHOR: Chris, we do indeed.
Reverend Sharpton, from my vantage point here on the podium, I was able to look over your shoulder at that teleprompter that just sat there for what seemed like a half-hour while you did a riff on whatever you did a riff on. Now, what if that speech of yours puts the Democrats over in prime time?
UPDATE: Listen to the Al Sharpton speech here to understand how offensive Williams' comment was.
Brian Williams now sees fit to tell us how he fears people coming up won't understand the standards that Brian trained under. But really, how could they miss all of Brian's standards? His number one rule seems to be to never ever ever ever let political opinion seep into what he does. And, to be fair to Brain, there wasn't the slightest danger of anything political showing up in his questioning. Pertinent questions about the content of Sharpton's speech would have to wait for Amy Goodman of Democracy Now or Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, or the thousands of bloggers that aren't slander mongering but are instead trying to pick up the enormous slack left by the corporate infotainment industry that calls itself the news media.
The reason that Fox News is so bad is because there is no balance for it. We need an AirAmericaTelevision because there's no putting the genie back in the bottle. For Williams - and to a lesser extent Cronkite - to complain that Americans should trust the corporate media to provide balance is laughable. It's an idea that has clearly had its moment and been found to fail.
There's so much to say on this topic, especially with the possibility of CBS's most recent problems having been generated by Roger Stone, but a lot of it has been said before. The corporate media are a disaster. Their interest is primarily to serve their corporate masters. They are easily played by whatever side devotes the most resources to play them. Without a Fox News for the Left, there's no hope for the majority of Americans hearing more than one side of every story.
UPDATE: 9:07pm: American Rhetoric has added Sharpton's speech to their website. Be sure to read the comments that the Hardball bobbleheads made about it when MSNBC cut into the address for their insight and analysis. I am so sick of hearing Chris Matthews get credit for being the most reasonable of the cable pundits. He's a pawn and a stooge just like all the rest and he deserves nothing but our contempt.
It's infuriating to see these gasbags continue to call themselves journalists. Yes, CBS got caught with its pants down, but it's only because the right wing is organized enough to see when a fight is being waged its way -- and fight back.
The Swift Boat Liars for Utter Horseshit, on the other hand, were met by Democrats who wanted to "not dignify the accusations with a response." Ask any kid who's been bullied in a schoolyard what turning the other cheek does....it just inflames the bully more. The only thing a bully understands is a punch in the nose.
Somewhere along the line, the media decided that outright bullshit, as long as it's delivered by someone NOT affiliated with the network, is simply "the other side." By this logic, Matt Lauer would bring Hitler on the TODAY show to find out why the annihilation of Jews is a good idea.
Posted by: Jill | September 23, 2004 at 11:04 AM