Fired CNN VP writes scathing book on journalistic decline

[carolinayellowdog]

Hey,

Library Journal for June 15 has a review of Bonnie Anderson's News Flash: Journalism, Infotainment, and the Bottom-Line Business of Broadcast News. Anderson was VP for recruiting and is suing CNN for firing her because "she wouldn't go along with the company's discriminatory hiring practices." The review adds:

In pursuit of viewers and profits, news organizations increasingly cut corners, engage in the cross-promotion of products, and trade impartiality for flag-waving. Anderson...draws many illustrations from her ten years with CNN but also finds plenty of examples elsewhere...her bleak assessment leaves little hope for a return to journalistic integrity.

Sounds juicy and long overdue!

CYD

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=ZYw1RtD07W&isbn=0787972851&itm=1

[treepig]

1. just another disgruntled ex-employee

let's all move along now, nothing to see here . . .

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Worth taking a look at.

[lovedems]

3. I wonder if CNN will be a venue on her book tour?

I doubt it but wouldn't it be great if she could go on CNN and tell them what a lousy job they are doing?

[The Animator]

4. It's depressing how far out of hand the media has gone.

I took a Journalism class back in the Mid 90's. I had a great proffesor, Mrs. Nancy White, she was a real bulldog, and she knew her shit. Whenever she would critique a story we had written she would insist that we keep our own opinions out of the stories. At the time I didn't realize how important it was. When I took that class shows like "Hard Copy" and "Inside Edition" were relatively new, and she saw the danger in it. She warned us what was coming. At the time I didn't get it, (what's wrong with showing a little emotion now and then, everyone's entitled to an opinion, and what could it hurt if our readers saw that we were human with feelings of our own?)

Now I get it. Now as I watch a tv "news" show that tells us little about what's happening in the world, and a great deal about how we should feel about it, I finnaly understand. I've tried to explain to my friends, but many are unaware of the metamorphasis the media as undergone. Some think I'm a nutcase going on about a "right-wing media conspiracy".

Would I have noticed the change had I not been made aware of what true Journalism is supposed to be?


Knowledge truly is power. The powerful have it, and they stay powerful buy keeping us from it, by keeping us distracted.


When I was a sophmore in Highschool my history class was instructed to read an exerpt from "Mein Kamf", the memoires of Adolf Hitler. I found it extremley distastful, after all, what could we learn about being good, from the most evil human being ever?

Know your enemy.

"All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be. But if, as in propaganda for sticking out a war, the aim is to influence a whole people, we must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public, and too much caution cannot be exerted in this direction."

"The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in sloans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out."

Any of this seem strangley familiar? Those who fail to study their history are doomed to repeat it.

Those who have studied it are also doomed to repeat it, but at least we can say I told you so.

[checks-n-balances]

5. Great (but sad) Post - and I know what you mean

I always took for granted that the press was trustworthy until about 15 years ago (whenever it was that Rush became famous). Although I knew he wasn't part of "the news", I remember how shocked I was to hear the open falsehoods and bigotry he was broadcasting - and someone was letting him do it!

I'll have to say that "the story behind the story" of Bushco's administration is the ethical demise of a once-trustworthy news media. If their corporate bosses knew anything about journalism, and had the press been able (or willing?) to do what they were trained to do, I doubt we'd have ever invaded Iraq.

It's a shameful part of our present culture and I wish the damage could be reversed.

[carolinayellowdog]

6. Welcome to DU-- great post

I was an avid consumer of TV news through the 90s but was totally alienated by the 2000 election coverage (pro-Bush post-election coverage on all networks) and boycotted TV thereafter. Have kept up with CNN second hand via DU and am very happy to have a disgruntled insider's explanation of the transformation of CNN and TV news in general.

When I happen upon Fox News I feel like Rip Van Winkle, stupefied that this new spectacle goes by the name of news at all. Is there a future Bonnie Anderson lurking among the Fox pod people? Hope she discusses Fox in her book as a bad influence on CNN.

[Cleita]

7. No kidding.

I never took journalism, but I was a reporter on my high school newspaper. Our little teenaged rag had more journalistic integrity than CNN has had in a long time and we were very proud to do it.

[Carolina]

10. excellent post

I am reading David Brock's Republican Noise Machine which is very timely and fits in with the theme of this thread. What stands out in it is how starting in 1980 with CNN and yes, Ted Turner's giving folks like Bob Novak and Phyllis Schaffly an arena to balance the liberal networks, the unravelling began. I was surprised; I did not know or recall the pre-UN supporting, Jane Fonda loving Ted. But the truth is the guy consorted with the likes of Jesse Helms to get his network started and did indeed feel the need for a place for the expression of more conservative views!

The change of ownership of NBC from RCA to GE (and CEO Jack Welch) led to a sharp right turn, and it's 90s iterations MSNBC and CNBC were and are nearly completely populated by wingnuts. Rush got his first radio show through white boys' afrimative action --- his father was part-owner of a station. But initially he was a failure. His little engine didn't garner any steam until around 1984 (how appropriate). And now, of course, we have complete meltdown and devolution of the media.

There are interesting depictions of Chris the Screamer Matthews (who'd really like to be president) and Timmy the Tub Russert which will make you loathe them more than you already do (if you can imagine such).

Anyway, we are a doomed nation if we don't get rid of the fascists in the West Wing AS WELL AS the propagandists of the media. What has become of journalism and leadership in this country is truly frightening.

[Kimber Scott]

11. I bet Rove has "Mein Kampf" under his pillow.

Thanks for sharing that with us.

[FizzFuzz]

13. great post, you really hit me hard

I just might print out some of that quote from Mein Kampf and put it on my door at work. How utterly true it is--what a tool for evil intentioned power whores.
I've thought about the I told you so thing before. Maybe the only thing that will prove what we're all saying IS the worst case scenario. God, small consolation, having scolding rights at the end of Democracy, but on the other hand, maybe only anarchy, which is what would be the later outcome of fascist rule, is the one thing that will make change.

Sometimes I think that its interesting that the aftermath of the total evil of Nazism in Germany is that Germany is now a humanitarian country.

[newsguyatl]

8. a personal note

i know and admire - GREATLY - bonnie anderson.


she's the reason i'm in the business, oddly enough.


i'm so glad she's speaking out on the sad state of our profession. the things i witness daily are enough to cause dementia.

[carolinayellowdog]

9. Are there any heroes/heroines left?

Not just at CNN but in TV news generally? I'd appreciate knowing whom you consider journalistic role models if you can freely speak of such matters. As an ex-viewer I don't have much feel for which individuals have kept their journalistic integrity most intact.

[TrustingDog]

14. Lou Dobbs

hasn't whored himself out too badly.
He does ask the tough questions and is bulldoggish, especially on the job outsourcing.
And he has not forgotten about Enron, like most of the rest of the world.

[calimary]

12. Another personal note:

I never worked with Bonnie Anderson but I remember her work. She was quite good, and very objective.

Thank GOD somebody additionally is speaking out!!!

It wasn't one of the direct reasons I got out of the business, but it's one of the main reasons why I am now ashamed of it. I used to be proud to say I was in the news business. Now I no longer feel that way. Lapdogs, not watchdogs. It's just a shame. And we're ALL the poorer for it.

Wonder if her book will make any difference? I doubt I could stay in it today, since I've become a lot more strident in my feelings, and I'd probably feel like some Crusader Rabbit and perhaps deliberately try to slant MY stories the opposite way from the mainstream, to counterbalance all the right-wing crap being peddled for truth these days. And I probably wouldn't get too far.

[goforit]

15. roflmao!!!......So all this propaganda doesn't cut the mustard.

:crazy:

[DeepModem Mom]

16. kick