Author: Michael Darling
Last week, this paper printed a piece on the imminent death of newspapers, magazines and other printed publications. Countless other newspapers have spilled ink on this topic in what has amounted to a collection of journalistic suicide notes. Left and right, papers have been trimming pages and employees, and slowly wasting away into mere shadows of their old selves. If I may be blunt and state the obvious, this is a bad thing.
The culprit frequently cited in the demise of print journalism is the Internet. The web has many important uses and has a definite advantage over newspapers in reporting news instantly. It has been suggested by some that bloggers will be the likely successors of the newspapers. I sincerely hope not. The idea of so called “citizen-journalists” is noble but flawed. Blogs have their purpose in this world, but they are decades away from being considered a serious news source. Many of the rumors spread about then Senator Obama and Sarah Palin during last year’s presidential campaign had their origin in partisan blogs.
For ages, journalists have tried to preserve an absence of bias. Unfortunately, the personal aspect of blogs leads to bias. Most big blogs lean one way or another on the political fence. The Huffington Post is in the tank for the left and the Drudge Report regularly launches right wing attacks on Democratic politicians. It is true that most newspapers have some political leanings, but it’s reserved for the editorial pages.
Okay then, what about television? The network evening news is alright but have you seen local news? I’m an L.A. native and I know that at least here the local news is a collection of human interest puff pieces and thirty second sound bites with just enough time for sports and weather. Cable news isn’t much better as the 24-hour news networks fight for ratings and viewers at the loss of actual content. Once again, there is the problem of bias as Fox News sets itself up as the voice of the (conservative) people and MSNBC has turned into the liberal response. In the early days of television news, the newsreader would present an editorial from time to time. Now it seems that the policy is to view the news through one lens and twist it for personal taste.
Unfortunately, we live in a fragmented society and as such, people enjoy hearing that with which they already agree. This is why newspapers need to survive. We need a truly balanced media, not one that caters to one political demographic or another. We need journalists that will check the facts, no matter who’s in the White House. Sadly it looks like we might wind up stuck with these two types of news people: the lap dogs who will recite talking points and press releases, and the attack dogs who will publish rumors before checking the facts. What we need are the watch dogs of the old who hold those in power accountable and make sure the truth wins out in the end.
Michael Darling is a junior History major. He can be reached at mdarling@oxy.edu.
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