Where Are the Journalists?

Where have all the Journalists gone? The question reminds me of a refrain from an old Peter, Paul, and Marie song. Has objective journalism died in this country? Have news agencies evolved into political blogs? As we watch the White House news corps these days, it certainly seems so. I often feel like I am listening to Pravda or some other state run television station. Broadcasters at ABC prepared a two hour infomercial on the President’s proposed healthcare package, allowing no GOP rebuttal or dissent. They wouldn’t even accept opposing view commercials. Now that is truly in the political tank. What is going on here? How did we get so far astray from the journalistic ethics of just 25 years ago?

I’ll leave some of that speculation to the insiders of the news agencies, but there is usually a more fundamental truth within corporations. If the minions within the business are all running up the hill in one direction, they are following someone higher up the hill. Look to the top and you will get your answer as to who is giving direction to this cast of reporters. Nothing goes into a newspaper without the approval of the managing editor and even he/she won’t be around long if that editor opposes the publisher. The same is true of these TV companies. The question shouldn’t be, why is Brian Williams bowing before the President, or why is Charlie Gibson avoiding asking the tough questions. The question should be, “Who is telling him to do it and why?”

When I first began my research for this article, I fully expected to find a correlation or common thread running through the individuals who make the real decisions for these news agencies. What I began to see was a collection of very different characters with their own reasons for supporting the views they promoted through their holdings. If there are commonalities, they weren’t apparent to me. Those people who are really curious about what is going on should look at the CEOs and members of the Board of Directors of these companies. This is where the financial truth lies. That is where you will find the real incentives for political support. Don’t expect journalistic objectivity from businesses who own the media outlets for the purpose of promoting their own interests. Real journalism seems to have been lost. We no longer have reporters of the news. We now have writers who want to tell us their version of a story.