All The News ... Addendum

Time passes. And we think of things we “shoulda' said.” Usually that phenomenon occurs immediately after a particular conversation. It is a missed opportunity. It's too late now to make a clever remark or pose a particular argument that would have gotten everyone's attention just a few moments ago.

Ideas, however, are not static. And they are not bound by time.

I was reading a previous blog that I wrote a little over a year ago, “All The News That's Fit To Print.” Of course I agree with myself, but I could have said more. And perhaps I could have emphasized other ideas. In it I pointed out that the primary aims of a publication are to sell papers and to publicize the publisher's opinion.ⁱ Thus the media slants are predictable even before a story is read or viewed by members of the public – a public usually having the same view anyway.ⁱⁱ The media weren't giving us the objective truth we had a right to expect.

I haven't changed my view about the facts – and these are facts. But my perspective is a little different. I still view the various media as biased in a wide variety of was – both in terms of political judgments and international perspectives. I still think the papers are excellent for wrapping fish,ⁱⁱⁱ and I think that they have the view that while it is their job to criticize others, any criticism of them is an impingement on the First Amendment. With those criticisms, though, there's more to be said.

I've come to the conclusion that that's their job. Mostly they're relatively honest^iv and it's the responsibility of the public to sort out the differences of opinion and to try to get a more objective view of events by consulting a wide variety of media with different prejudices. It's time we realized and accepted the fact that there is no such thing as a free press. At least not in the sense that one can get unbiased news about all important matters, and get it from a from a single site. And there are are many causes for this problem.

First of all, the public has little patience for “hard news.” Its great interest is in sensational material, especially in the detailing of the pain of others. In addition to all the murders and other crime stories that are featured, we find that pain in reports on the poor of our own country, as well as those elsewhere. We devour stories about wars and natural catastrophes. As long as the problems are those of others, we are fascinated by them and search them out. We savor Schadenfreude, so that's what the media provides.

Adding to the problem is the fact that accuracy is not a critical factor, but speed is. Publishing first, takes precedence over getting it right. In fact, there is not enough time for the media to get it right. Like a lie, a rumor “will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.”^v To be first, therefore,^vi little time can be wasted on the checking of facts – or those statements presented as facts. Indeed, notwithstanding pompous statements about “truth” and “accuracy,” it is not always in the best interests of the media spend the time to present material correctly and objectively. Rather, it is the goal to achieve a certain response on the part of those who receive the information, and to achieve that response first – before someone else convinces them of an alternative “truth.” The deadline dictates the news.

And news usually reflects a point of view rather than objectivity.^vii The message is the message. But that has always been the case, and, like today, those in the past who carried new information either believed what they had heard or been told, or they related “facts” that they wanted the audience to believe. Some may even have believed it themselves, although they probably told the story in such a way as to emphasize their beliefs rather than the facts. Travelers related what they considered important when questioned about the place they had left. That represented “incidental” news. But sometimes the goal was more calculated. Pheidippides ran to Sparta to get Athenian troops needed for the battle against the Persians at Marathon – at least that was Herodotus's story.^viii It was the messenger who carried good or bad news.^ix

Wandering minstrels followed, and town criers as well.  And they, like the editors of today, chose what we would hear.  But the “news,” at least that which was reported, was old. Even the introduction of newspapers in the seventeenth century left the public with old news. Perhaps it was more recent than previously, but it was old. That problem was solved with the telegraph, radio, television, and internet, and now we get the news while it is happening – sometimes even before.^x This is especially the case when the media are controlled by the state. For them, the news is an extension of foreign, as well as domestic policy,^xi and it must be doled out to the public carefully, expressing the ideas that will be of greatest use to the government. Politicians recognize the power of the pen.

And the same is true of history, which is, in essence, old “news.” Using old reports, such as those in newspapers, or history books written long after the fact, is likely to lead to erroneous conclusions. As Winston Churchill said, “History is written by the victors.”^xii That's quite in line with the idea that the written word, even now, should be considered in the light of the prejudices of the writer. So the best historians are those who sift through contemporary documents and try to understand them rather than those who rely on the interpretation of others. The record of events more likely to be correct than reports of events.

So if, like Will Rogers, all you know is what you read in the newspapers, you'd better read a lot of them. Which, fortunately, you can now do thanks to the internet. You can read all about it in papers from coast to coast and internationally as well. You can sample both governmental and private biases around the world. The responsibility for what you read, and what you believe, however, is yours. The obligation to get the facts belongs to you. You can't blame the media for slanting what they present. You'd do the same. If you only read what you're going to agree with, you're wasting your time. You could write those articles yourself.

That's what I shoulda' said. Rather than blame the media for doing what I would do – what anyone interested in making money and influencing people would do – I should have acknowledged my own responsibility to learn the truth. And it is my responsibility. No one will do it for me.  I'll be my own editor.

Next episode: “The Absolute Truth” – I'm Sir Oracle. Don't question me.

i     The paper will claim otherwise, saying that the staff are free to express their own opinions. The staff, however, having been approved by the publisher, are likely to share his views. At least if they want to keep their jobs. Some papers boast balance and evenhandedness and hire columnists with contrary opinions, but those with different views are certain to be outnumbered significantly by those who express the “party line,” lest anyone think that the minority opinion has any validity. Obviously it doesn't. But the publisher has established his credentials as one who is “objective” and who wants to air all sides of a story.

ii    The bias of a newspaper is likely to be known to the purchaser before he opens it. The Village Voice will speak out in extremely liberal terms, while the Wall Street Journal will record a much more conservative perspective; the New York Times will multiply Israel's faults while the New York Sun will always see the bright side. (The same is true of other media. NPR, for example, is likely to have a liberal outlook while FOX News will be conservative; Atlantic Monthly will be liberal and National Review conservative.) To a large degree this is a marketing as well as a political position. Each outlet finds its niche, and each reader buys the paper that he knows will echo his prejudices. And from that viewpoint, it works.

iii    I didn't say that at the time, but it's true.

iv    Notwithstanding the low opinion of the media as held by the public and as demonstrated in polls which evaluate the performance of many professions and industries.

v     Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon.

vi    And that's a major goal of the media.

vii    It's a mistake to take at face value either “All the news that's fit to print” or “Fair and balanced” reporting. They respond to both temporal and doctrinal dictates as much (or perhaps more) than the objective facts. In some markets one is more attractive to the public, in some markets the other is favored. It's unfortunate that much of what they say is taken seriously. Some of the media make a show of “evenhandedness,” but it's clear that it's only pretense.

viii   Plutarch tells it differently.

ix    And he was sometimes shot for his efforts.

x     The scheduling of particular events, or their anticipation, coupled with the need to be first in reporting, my lead to errors. For example, Dewey did not defeat Truman. And the reporting of election winners, reporting that occasionally needs to be revised, also occurs.

xi    Clausewitz was too limited in his perspective.

xii    He also wrote “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” A cute remark, and one illustrative of the unreliability of such printed reports.