Clippings 2002

May 3, 2002

Zombies in Roller Coasters

Excerpts from Ellen Hume’s forthcoming essay in Harvard’s “Nieman Reports,” reviewing Todd Gitlin’s new book, Media Unlimited.

“…To Gitlin, ‘media’ aren’t really about journalism at all, or anything real. They are an alternative universe, a parade of surrogate experiences and disposable feelings, delivered through films, television, music, radio, advertising, print publishing, cell phones and computer games…Everything is made to be taken lightly, and to pass by quickly. We are zombies, strapped into roller coasters. Part of the thrill is the speed of the media ride…

“…Gitlin’s discovery of hedonism is as old as time, but so is every generation’s search for meaning. People keep stepping in front of the Tiananmen tank, challenging the abuses of power. If the media content providers aren’t part of that alternative, something else—like the Taliban—will be. “Unless we are prepared to make demands on one another, we can enjoy only the most rudimentary kind of common life,” the late Christopher Lasch warned….

“…Journalism remains important around the world, even if its commercial values isn’t amortized properly by most media companies. It has been the tortoise to Gitlin’s speeding hare. Some of the best and worst journalists in the world are inciting action every day, in more desperate corners of the globe and even here at home…Reporters are getting killed in record numbers, not just by terrorists in Pakistan, but by their own governments and by people who fear their power. ..

“…Bad content does have an impact…Gitlin emphasizes that the media are not driven by some megalomaniac American supercorporation, trying to impose its ideology, but by the drive for audience numbers, the need to be popular. They “have no cultural commitment whatsoever,” Gitlin says. The problem is, he thinks that’s reassuring. Unfortunately, collateral damage can be just as destructive as a deliberate assault.”

March 2, 2002 (The Boston Globe)

The Last Laugh: The War on News

America's disappearing audience for serious news came back after Sept. 11 to give the newspapers, television and radio another chance. These millions of people are interested, more than ever, in straight talk about real problems and what needs to be done. But despite all the valiant work of journalists on dangerous assignments, this newly attentive public is being jilted again by American television executives.

If you wonder why America is clueless about the culture war that inspires our foreign enemies, just check out ABC's latest idea that David Letterman's entertainment show should replace Ted Koppel's "Nightline" news program. "Nightline" is one of the few national programs that responsibly examine the issues we face. Letterman is wonderful, but he doesn't pretend to provide the information people need to understand what is happening to them.

Koppel's "Nightline" is actually a commercial success; it attracts four million viewers a night, as the Letterman show does. But these viewers apparently have something else on their minds than just their own pleasure, which is a drag for ABC's advertisers. The older news audience is less profitable than the younger entertainment audience; this is why ABC is considering dumping "Nightline" for the Letterman comedy show. Many television executives act as if the news is whatever emerges from a hundred public relations campaigns. Television is only for selling, whether it's products or propaganda. This kind of thinking also inspired the now-discredited Pentagon Office of Strategic Initiatives, which was expecting to lie to the foreign press as part of its news service.

Having the Pentagon bar American journalists from most of the war zone has not helped. ABC's entertainment division is getting better access to the U.S. military than its news division, in order to present the Pentagon's version of the war in a new ABC "reality series." Perhaps Letterman will sprinkle his jokes with some dispatches from the front.

To be sure, ABC is not alone in blowing this opportunity to elevate the news. The average 30-minute evening newscast offers only 17 minutes of news and before 9/11, Dan Rather on CBS was told not to use the word "foreign" on air because his bosses are worried that it may turn off viewers, according to Len Downey and Robert Kaiser of the Washington Post. We still aren't learning much from CNN or others about what the rest of the world is doing or thinking; international news seems to relate only to America's war on terrorism. Not since Nuremburg has an international court of justice taken on an accused war criminal like Slobodan Milosevic; Americans had a lot to do with bringing about his prosecution for genocide, yet one searches America's 500 television channels in vain for any tape of his trial in The Hague.

Each morning, CNN's catch of the year, Paula Zahn, engages in obsequious chats with American generals assigned to boost our morale, or she badgers guests who seem to know a lot more than she does. She might as well be trying on fashions or singing with children the way former "Sixty Minutes" reporter Diane Sawyer does on Good Morning America. NBC has been criticized for years for reducing its news to personal issues of health or family life. Fox's news network has filled a niche by offering a more conservative ideology, but studies confirm that it isn't the "fair and balanced" news source that it claims to be.

If ABC abandons "Nightline," it will be a major loss to the search for useful information about the real challenges we now face as a nation. ABC executives will join all the others who shrug off their public obligations, saying the health of American democracy is "not my problem" while they pocket a bigger bonus. But the quality of America's public life IS their problem, because they have a franchise to run the public's airwaves, and because television is still our national source of information and our first line of attack in the battle for world opinion. If we treat America's news flow as if it's a national joke, how surprised should we be if our bashers get the last laugh?

February, 2002

Local Journalism in Afghanistan

"Like Bosnia was before it, Afghanistan will probably be carved up into journalistic fiefdoms by local powers with an interest in keeping enmity alive, further fragmenting the country's fragile society. So far, international efforts have focused on broadcasting news reported by non-Afghans…these efforts may do some good, but they will also soak up enormous amounts of precious aid…What Afghans need most from their journalists is not explanations from the outside world and its views, but reliable information and honest debate within their own society."

-Anthony Borden and Edward Girardet, New York Times

"If you think covering the war is hard…try covering peace."

-AP foreign editor Nate Polowetzky (in 1994)

"Reporters are like soldiers. The less they know, the longer they live."

-Croatian militiaman, quoted in Nieman Reports, Winter 1999-Spring 2000.

"Freedom of the press, like any rights, costs money."

-Prof. Stephen Kotkin, Russian history professor at Princeton University.

Despite these sobering observations, there is some hope that pluralistic, professional journalism will emerge from the rubble of Afghanistan. Internews, a non-profit NGO that has done much to revive journalism in the post-Communist world, has recently received a grant from the US government to develop a decentralized, independent radio and television network in Afghanistan. They will be working with the Afghan Media Resource Center, which has been the locus of non-Taliban, Afghan journalists since 1986. They will try to neutralize the impact of the kind of factional media that plague other conflict zones, continuing to incite violence. I have been impressed with Internews as I have been working with them on another new project: figuring out how media policies (laws and official practices) might be improved around the world to enable greater freedom of expression and access to information. Internews' Open Media Campaign aims to collaborate with existing free expression organizations in a sustained effort that is being designed from the ground up in participating countries.