Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, more important than them all

by Mike Gange

The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril

Leonard Downie Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser

Knopf, $38.00, 292 pages

 

A drive for higher profit margins, a decrease in investigative journalism, an increase in sensational stories about tragic events or about pop culture celebrities with playboy lifestyles: that’s the news about the News.

Veteran newsmen Leonard Downie Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser, both of whom have worked for the Washington Post since the early 1960's, have turned their journalistic skills on the world they know best – the news media, looking at some of the best and some of the worst of the current business of journalism. In The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril, the two senior editors give us a richly detailed insider’s view of newsrooms and practices at large and medium sized papers in the U.S., along with a comparison of newsrooms at network television and at a variety of local TV stations.

To be sure, the world of journalism – whether print, radio, or television – has become very sensationalistic, often based more on entertainment than on informative or investigative journalism. While Messieurs Downie and Kaiser put some of the blame on today’s journalists, many of whom are increasingly willing to write in that trashy tabloid style or cover spot news with all-too graphic details rather than dig into deeper issues that need to be addressed, they also say part of the problem in the news business lies with the ownership. Where the owners of the local newspapers were once well known businessmen or women in the very city where the paper was published, today’s media owners are typically faceless conglomerates concerned more about shareholders’ profits than local issues. This increased drive for return on investment has resulted in staff cutbacks, meaning fewer reporters working to cover many more stories in less time. What is published, then, are shorter stories with less analysis and insight. The "members of the press" used to serve as watchdogs of government and promote a culture of accountability towards our leaders – be they civic or entrepreneurial – but now very few journalists get to do much more than glorified news releases and "puff-pieces" about their community.

According to Mr. Downie and Mr. Kaiser, television news is one of the areas of journalism that is not serving citizens well in the role of watchdog. A U.S. survey showed the majority of Americans have predominantly gotten their daily news from Network television rather than from print since 1963, but upon reading the comparison by the authors, one wonders why. They say even a moderately large U.S. paper might have a hundred reporters on staff, and the ability to call on many more in other cities or in foreign bureaux, while CBS, NBC or ABC networks might have fewer than 30 reporters and have cut out their foreign correspondents completely. Consistently, newspapers have provided the best investigative journalism in the U.S. since Watergate, repeatedly scooping the TV networks with longer and more complete stories. Furthermore, a TV network provides between ten and 13 stories in a half hour news show, each with about 400 words, while a large daily newspaper like the New York Times would print hundreds of stories, each roughly twice as long as the television pieces. CBS News anchor Dan Rather candidly admits to the authors the issues in the news are often so complex, they require the more thorough coverage provided by newspapers. But what keeps the networks from expanding their news services is revenue. Those network news shows bring in millions of dollars of ad revenue with relatively modest overhead; still, the owners are afraid to tinker with that, in case the ad revenues slide. So the network news, say Mr. Downie and Mr. Kaiser, is really an expanded headline service delivered to huge audiences by multi-millionaire talking heads. They have an even more unflattering, but equally unblinking, view of news coverage by local television stations.

Leonard Downie Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser do not shy away from saying what needs to be said, balancing the good with the bad. They have delivered a well written story that details what really happens behind the scenes at newsrooms everywhere. Mr. Downie and Mr. Kaiser are clearly passionate about their profession.. Thanks to their four decades of observations in and among the news media, and their skill as writers and editors, Mr. Downie and Mr. Kaiser succeed at developing a story about what is really happening in the news media. Their candidness makes for an eye opening tale.

Mike Gange teaches media studies and journalism at Fredericton High.