Dear Friends,
I listened to the Kalb Report on PBS today. He had four notable media people. The Presidents of, NPR, Associated Press, CNN, and the Knight Ritter Foundation.
I was amazed that the first thing they all said was the biggest problem in journalism is revenue, (money). They agree (except for the president of the Knight Ritter Foundation), that they need more money. I wonder why they are so greedy? Why the out of control greed?
The president of CNN claimed that CNN has had double digit growth in revenue in the last five years. I was under the impression that viewer ship had moved to FOX News leaving CNN a distant second. Pretty good CEOing to have double digit growth in earnings when actual viewer ship is dwindling. But even with double digit revenue growth over the last five years he complained that he wants more money? Isn’t that the definition of greed?
I noticed that the luminaries avoided any mention of bias in the media. There must not be any problem with bias. If there is the leaders of the news industry don’t see it. The only one who tangentially mentioned bias was the president of the Associated Press. He said that now things are being covered and questions asked that were not before… The rest of the panelists took it that he was talking about race.
The president of NPR was caught unawares. She cracked a joke and had the question re-asked. She was asked if news consumers can discern the wheat from the chaff. She gave us some credit and said we can and do. She went on to say that there is no bad content… except that which misrepresents itself.
I maintain that the term unbiased reporter is an oxymoron. No one is unbiased. Could a minority, steeped in the doctrine that white people are demons, be sympathetic reporting about a white supremacist that’s child was abducted? What about the other way around? Moreover should they have compassion at all? We all have baggage in one form or another. Not to the level that I have used as a example but we are all guilty. So in my opinion to represent yourself as unbiased when you really are not, (especially when you know in your heart you are not), is being very dishonest. One might even use the term… misrepresents.
I thought the guy from the Knight Ritter Foundation made a good point when he said consumers of media are becoming users of media. In that we expect something we can use to make money, buttress a point, inject in conversation etc… That we are interactive in our consumption of media and journalism.
I would have liked to see more whys being answered. Like why is readership dwindling in major newspapers, why is the American public so skeptical of the major news outlets, why is ad revenue dropping (in real terms), and not so much blatant advertising for their brands.
The long and short is that whenever you get the presidents of buggy whip manufacturers in a room they agree the problem is with everyone else… not their product.
