Cultural and Commerical Influences on the Free Press

Washington Watch: Cultural and Commerical Influences on the Free Press
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Major reporters, their editors, TV news presenters and commentators, and the government officials and other newsmakers they cover, form a very small circle in Washington DC and New York.

In addition to sharing the cultural values and understandings common to all Americans, the members of this small group of elites share the same social class, are neighbors, socialize together and even live in worlds connected by a revolving door. While much has been made of the revolving door that exists between government and business, the revolving door that connects media and government should not be overlooked. And much the same is true of the commentators or analysts hired by the networks to interpret the news.

This group, as a whole, therefore, largely shares a similar worldview, the same sense of history, or lack of history, and the same shared narrative of policy and self-imposed limits of available policy options of those government officials they are covering.

This is also true of the guests invited by the media for interviews, and those on whom they rely as “sources.” Overwhelming percentages of these guests, commentators and analysts are government officials, former government officials, or former military officers.

A study conducted by FAIR, a media monitoring group in October of 2003, for example, found that over three-fourths of all commentators invited to appear on TV news programs were current or former US government officials, divided about evenly between civilian and military officials, and almost 80% of all these guests were supportive of the Administration’s policies.
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In this world, pack journalism or “group think” becomes a problem.
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Most US cities now only have one newspaper and large cities have two, and only rarely more than that.

As a result of this consolidation, the sources of information have become fewer and less diverse.

It is inevitable, therefore, that in this new world of media, corporate and commercial interests will trump other considerations. Profits must be made, shareholders demand it; market shares must be protected, government regulators must be appeased and politicians must be courted.
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In this brave new world of commercial journalism where “audience share” is the key to survival, and higher ratings equal higher advertising revenue, media, like politicians, follow polls and hesitate to step outside of what is “conventional wisdom.”

So it was, in the lead-up to the war with Iraq, the media was shamelessly complicit in echoing the Administration’s drumbeat for war. Special logos were created with dramatic themes, like “Countdown to War.” One network even put a clock in the lower corner of the screen ticking down the time until the war’s start.

The media monitoring group FAIR suggested that the media behaved more like “stenographers” than journalists. They reported without question and, at times, even became conduits for “disinformation campaigns.”

As a result, the extremely effective public relations effort of the White House was able to utilize a compliant media to build public support for the war. But more on this next week. ...