Channel Surfing
Television Previews by Bruce Christian
Shameful TV
Media forget purpose; are out of touch with public
Television news can be done well, as it was on Sept. 11, 2001. Or it can be done poorly; as it usually is. The disgraceful digression in recent years of newsrooms for the trite and trivial was never more obvious than during the April 16 much-hyped Democratic candidates’ debate in Philadelphia.
By the time this column appears, a couple of weeks will have passed since the debate and the outcome of the Pennsylvania primary will have been decided. We will know that either Sen. Barak Obama pulled an upset or that Sen. Hillary Clinton won and breathed new life into her sagging presidential ambitions.
But how that television debate was conducted will haunt the media for a long time, and yet it is only a microcosm of what television viewers have seen throughout this long, too long, drawn out campaign season.
On April 16, major broadcast network ABC sent out their two biggest personalities, prime time evening anchor Charles Gibson and Sunday morning news pontificating show host George Stephanopolis. The two exhibited the kind of petty, arrogant news behavior that makes today’s media a joke in the minds of a majority.
Need to know
The job of a journalist — a once proud profession, as those who worked in the craft believed in a commitment to provide information the public NEEDS to know — now is regarded with the same disdain the public has for government officials, lawyers and used cars salesmen.
What did Gibson and Stephanopolis do to degrade the image of journalists more than it already is?
They forgot their responsibilities as the moderators of this debate between Obama and Clinton. They chose to go the play off the sensational and titillating headlines of charges and countercharges of the past four to six weeks, rather than concentrate on issues about which voters care.
For nearly the first hour of the two-hour television event, the two ABC characters became caricatures. Even when Obama gently chided them for wallowing in issues that had been answered and encouraged them to move onto substantive issues, they decided the public’s appetite for more trash has not been satisfactorily satiated. So they continued to focus on the mundane.
Therefore, Obama once again had to answer why he doesn’t wear an America flag lapel pin.
Since when does wearing such a trinket on a lapel provide insights into economic or foreign policy? And since when is wearing an American flag lapel the be-all, end-all mark of patriotism?
During the so-called debate, Obama also had to once again address the words of his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose impassioned sermons made many cringe. The sad thing is that Wright’s statements, when taken into context, were nothing worse than what U.S. patriots wrote about England when our forefathers were fighting for their independence; or worse than the kinds of incendiary comments Martin Luther King Jr. made when he was leading the battle during the 1960s for civil rights.
Substance over trivial
The media would argue these kinds of questions are important because the public wants to know. The public’s outcry of this deplorable debate was immediate and it was not supportive of the news organization. In fact, the opposite of what the media claimed was the result, as public polls from the debate indicated we want to hear substance.
We want to know how Clinton or Obama will get us out of this mess the Bush Administration has created. We want to know how and when either of them will get us out of Iraq; how they will handle the mortgage crisis; what can be done to address the high price of gas to mitigate the rising prices in food; what should be done about the growing number of unemployed and uninsured.
The media don’t want real substantive discussions on those kinds of topics, because policy talk doesn’t lend to colorful 10-second (or less) sound bites.
Huge egos
Successful politicians truly believe it is his or her way or there is no other way. They have huge egos and will fight their causes long after they are proven wrong. Nothing the news media say or do will change that. Yet the media continue to operate as if they believe they should have the power to determine which way the elections are supposed to turn and whom should be nominated.
Why are the media doing this? Because they don’t have anything else.
Talking politics all day is easy, and it doesn’t require a whole lot of homework if you are just speaking your opinion — just listen to Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly just once. They prove constantly that if you have at least a rudimentary knowledge of a topic, they can opine about it for days.
Everyone has an opinion. Some purposely are crafted to enrage others. That’s why we are advised by the old adage to never discuss politics (or religion) in polite company.
But for television news and talk, it’s much easier to gab about politics. The producers grab “party operatives” or politicians who are supporting a specific candidate and introducing them as “experts.”
Cottage industry
These kinds of shows and this kind of coverage have created a little cottage industry of “political experts.” Many of these so-called experts come from the opinion pages of newspapers and magazines, while others have made names for themselves as independent bloggers. Some of them have no credentials to speak with the gravitas they purport to have.
In short, our political elections have been hijacked by the very media that are supposed to be the watchdogs that cover these races. The media have determined which issues to cover and which to ignore; which topics need huge play and which can be buried as not good enough for prime time coverage. The media have found a way to protect their own and to promote the new media stars they want to rise.
But the most egregious sin the media continue to commit is that they have become like the politicians running for office. The network media’s collective ego, pride and idolatry work against the industry.
What has happened is the media have become out of touch with the real concerns that real people have. As gatekeepers of information, the media no longer care about common people. The news that is reported is news that help corporations stay strong; help the rich get richer; and of course help get elected those politicians who will give reporters good headlines and quotes.
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