Posts tagged partisanship
Journalism and Democracy
In this video, CUNY Professor CW Anderson imagines the future of journalism and its changing place in democracy. Partisan reporting, Anderson says, will thrive alongside some big names from today – like, say, the New York Times – to serve as news for the educated and the upper class. Will this reflect itself the democracy we live in? Anderson conjures up images of old torchlight parades and globalization, the Clinton impeachment and political apathy to remind us that democracy isn’t unchanging but is influenced by its press, its time, and what its citizens think of themselves.
FJP: Heavy stuff! See our first video with Chris here, and expect more from our interview with him soon.
Far from being an outlier, Roger Ailes fits snugly in an American tradition of partisan and skeezy journalism. As the owner and captain of his own media empire, William Randolph Hearst bent the news to suit his political ambitions for five decades. His vilification of President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes Fox News’ harassment of President Obama look like patty-cake. Robert R. McCormick, owner and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, ran headlines like “Moscow Orders Reds in U.S. to Back Roosevelt.”
The tradition of an American media owner or boss pushing a candidate or a cause is so firmly ensconced in journalistic history that the true outlier is the mogul who plays it completely straight. Walter Annenberg used his Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News to smear opponents and reward his political friends, facts be damned. The Manchester Union Leader’s William Loeb (subscription required) hammered liberal Democrats as “left-wing kooks” and called President John Kennedy “the No. 1 liar in the United States.” Nelson Rockefeller, in Loeb’s eyes, was a “wife-swapper,” and President Dwight Eisenhower was a “stinking hypocrite.
Jack Shafer, Slate. Who’s Afraid of Roger Ailes? Rolling Stone and New York magazine publish dueling takes on Fox News Channel Chairman Roger Ailes.
The Rolling Stone article is a long read (about 10,000 words).
The New York magazine one is less long (about 6,400 words).
Both are interesting explorations of Ailes and the Fox News operation. File under: Weekend Reading. And if you only have time for one, head Schafer’s advice, “If you enjoy a scary nighttime story, read Dickinson’s [Rolling Stone] piece. But if your tastes run toward political comedy, click on Sherman’s.”
The decline of traditional media and the rise of viral emails and partisan Web and cable TV platforms has meant the near-collapse of common facts, believed across the political spectrum.
From Politico, “A new era of accusation and innuendo” by Jonathan Martin and John Harris
See also, “Factchecking Obama: Birther controversy was 4% of newshole, not ‘dominant’ story”
(via poynterinstitute)
There was a logic in allowing impartial broadcasters to have a monopoly of the broadcasting space. But in the future, maybe there should be a broad range of choices? Why shouldn’t the public be able to see and hear, as well as read, a range of opinionated journalism and then make up their own mind what they think about it?
The BBC and Channel 4 have a history of clearly labelled polemical programmes. But why not entire polemical channels which have got stronger opinions? I find the argument persuasive.
