NEWSPAPERS IN TURMOIL
By Isaiah Z. Sterrett (11/18/05)
SOMETIMES, try as one might to adhere to at least the basic seriousness required for analysis of the media, it’s important to step back and examine—from a self-imposed distance—the state of affairs. Now is one of those times.
We have, on the one hand, my favorite newspaper, the Washington Post, substituting as the Nation’s Paper, as The New York Times is still recovering from its Judith Miller fiasco. Though the Miller story certainly does not represent a press corps shilling for President Bush, as some have laughably suggested, it does represent a press corps starving for the long-gone days of pre-Internet, pre-cable news America, in which print journalists, as the sole arbiters of truth, reigned supreme. The media are so hungry for power—or even mere significance—that they’ve begun eating their own.
On the other hand, in a very depressing development, we have the Post going absolutely daft, recently headlining a story on its Website thus: “Exercise Increases Life Span.” Check back tomorrow for “New Study Shows Rainbows Often Follow Rain.”
Even so, the Post remains superior to the Great Gray Lady. Historically, the only real reason to read The New York Times—save for maybe its coverage of the world’s more obscure regions, an area of journalism in which The Times excels—was the Op-Ed Page. Sadly, however, due to a tremendous droop in readership, one must now pay for Op-Ed, which I simply won’t do. Accordingly, my insatiable thirst for the witticisms of Maureen Dowd has been left to fester. All that remains for me is her new book, Are Men Necessary?, in which she attempts to explore female sexuality through anecdotes about neurophysiology and stiletto pumps.
It’s a world gone mad when one finds oneself turning to Maureen Dowd for measured journalism.
Americans, of late, have focused almost exclusively on the problems of the White House, but have failed to detect the problems of the press. The media have literally spent the last few months philosophizing about President Bush’s falling ratings while at the same time ignoring their own. The thought of Bush losing Karl “Architect” Rove has so tantalized The New York Times that the paper has neglected to address its recent loss of hundreds of employees.
Ivor Ries, a former business journalist and commentator, told Australia’s The Age that he “can quite confidently predict that if the big newspaper companies around the world do not learn how to turn their print audience into an internet audience they will be bankrupt.” The piece notes, further, that problems for newspapers are by no means exclusive to The New York Times. Papers forced to downsize now include Philadelphia’s Daily News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore’s The Sun, Newsday, and the San Jose Mercury News.
“The biggest herd is still in traditional media,” Ries says, “but we're getting to the point where, with the current levels of household penetration of broadband, very soon the herd will be on the net.”
Contrary to what some would probably like (i.e., Matt Drudge), the Internet needn’t take over the media. It certainly may, if newspapers like The Times don’t act, but this is not a necessary development. The reason people have stopped buying papers is that they realize, as well they should, that newspapers are not the bastions of impartiality that they may once have been. Today, newspapers are where we find Jayson Blair, Judith Miller, and a consistent deluge of Bush-bashing editorials. Consumers will only return to newspapers if they are allowed, once again, to believe—at least to a healthy extent—what they read.
This will not happen overnight, but it can start tomorrow morning. Newspapers need to take a break from front-page activism. The ninety-seventh story on Scooter Libby—which is essentially the same as the first—need not be written, much less printed. We don’t need another headline screaming about Abu Ghraib or weapons of mass destruction; we need news, plainly and objectively written. I don’t know if The Times has ever been free of its current style, but maybe it should try it. In the meantime, our only hope is Maureen Dowd’s wisdom on relationships, “new love,” and “The Drag of Going Stag.”
© Copyright 2005 by Isaiah Z. Sterrett
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