An interesting Newsweek article about the National Enquirer‘s role in American political news coverage points to one of the key problems in modern-day journalism:
As quaint as this may sound, America’s major news organizations still see themselves, at least in part, as public servants. ? Even as the mainstream media have ? reluctantly or not ? gone more tabloid, newsroom demographics have been moving in the opposite direction. Ever since Watergate, our nation’s newsrooms have been dominated by Ivy Leaguers who got into journalism to play a role, however subjugated, in the shaping of our political discourse, not to chase rumors of an extramarital affair.
That last phrase was designed to show why reporters shied away from the John Edwards story, but writer Jonathan Mahler could have substituted the phrase “not to deliver straight reporting of facts about news the audience wants to know.” The sentence still would have been accurate.
Reporters who believe they’re “public servants” who “play a role ? in the shaping of our political discourse” are much more likely to insert their opinions into their material than those who see themselves as simple conduits of information they both like and loathe.
Everyone is biased, so media bias is unavoidable. Intentional bias, based on the notion that reporters should help shape political discourse, is the real problem ? one which is likely to keep the Media Mangle in business for years to come.
