Everyone Claims to Be a Victim

I read the transcript of a podcast: “Is the media making American politics worse?” It comes from a political journalist who believes all of his colleagues are honorable and hardworking, but “I’m worried we’re failing. I’m worried we’re making American politics worse, not better.” To get a more objective viewpoint he invites a professor of journalism to discuss it with him. The exchange goes as follows.

The crisis is “because everything around us has changed — our business models, the way people read us, the way we compete with each other, the way we’re manipulated — and we’re not keeping up. Instead, we’re getting played by the outrage merchants and con artists and trolls and polarizers who understand this new world better.” Apparently this crisis of trust is not of their own making. It’s someone else’s fault, the trolls and polarizers.

“We’re being used to fracture American democracy, and I don’t think we know how to stop it.”

His guest believes the president is forcing journalists to cover his “nuts” rallies. The host complains that the media run in packs, so if you get a story wrong it has no consequences, because everyone else got it wrong too. They just move on to the next story without any investigation of their own missteps or any feeling of responsibility to make corrections.

They are concerned that the outrageous elbows out the important in news coverage.

Both admit the media is now in the entertainment business which is different from journalism and that “We don’t really have a press corps that takes responsibility for the priority list that it ends up working from. We have journalists who are just reacting to events.”

So we have journalists admitting that when stories come in, it’s their organizations that decide what is news and what is not (the priority list). Despite that, they don’t want to admit any bias. They want to be seen as arbiters of right and wrong, of truth and lies, but this printed exchange of ideas reeks of political bias. More evidence comes out as they comment on their audience: “So on the one hand, we become more important to the people who feel like they are on our side. And we have become less important to the ones who aren’t.” They then go on to agree that those who disagree with them – not on their side – are wrong and that’s what keeps them from doing their jobs.

See how easily they portray themselves as victims. What they write and what they choose to report is out of their control; and there is nothing they can do about it.

Part of this is a responsibility issue with the reporters, and part is a perspective issue with the audience. The media must deal with a crisis of trust and a built-in conflict between the entertainment and journalism sides of the business. But none of it is their fault. The audience is driving them to water down the important with the “new, outrageous, conflict-oriented, secret, interesting” stories that the outrage merchants force them to cover. As for their audience, our lack of perspective, our yearning for the new and outrageous, results in us getting the news we deserve rather than important and meaningful stories. Meanwhile, these journalists portray themselves as victims of the system.

The bottom line is that we can’t expect anyone to watch out for us. The truth is out there somewhere, but to find it we must question everything! The future lies in critical thinking and perspective, with a little responsibility on the side.