Broder: Issues "cry out for serious debate; media "marketed," "quick-fix"

[DeepModem Mom]

The Media, Losing Their Way

By David S. Broder
Sunday, September 26, 2004; Page B07

We don't yet know who will win the 2004 election, but we know who has lost it. The American news media have been clobbered.

In a year when war in Iraq, the threat of terrorism and looming problems with the federal budget and the nation's health care system cry out for serious debate, the news organizations on which people should be able to depend have been diverted into chasing sham events: a scurrilous and largely inaccurate attack on the Vietnam service of John Kerry and a forged document charging President Bush with disobeying an order for an Air National Guard physical....

***

....The way to the top of journalism was no longer to test yourself on police beats and city hall assignments, under the skeptical gaze of editors who demanded precision in writing and careful weighing of evidence. It was to make a reputation as a clever wordsmith, a feisty advocate, a belligerent or beguiling political personality, and then market yourself to the media.

These hires were made by executives who themselves had little commitment to the solid and steady journalistic values that come from working a beat for a sustained period of time. They were looking for quick fixes for their circulation or ratings -- and they thought the star system or the "big story" would save them.

But to their dismay, TV news show ratings continued to decline, newspaper circulations slumped and the fickle public -- whose wishes editors now took as their command -- switched to even more sensational outlets: the cable talk shows and infotainment formats that put argument, gossip and amusement at the top....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49279-2004Sep25.html

[Boredtodeath]

1. Bwahahaha! Note to the media

You have been replaced. The bloggers are kicking your ass and you still don't have a clue why.

[BootinUp]

2. Broder's been one of the few voices of reason

this last year.

[wurzel]

3. "To their dismay"?

I don't think TV networks could care less about news and would be just as happy not to broadcast any. Cable TV is not about news it is about "ratings". So news is entertainment. Newspapers are different, of course, which is why they are so much better than TV. But that isn't saying much either.

[KlatooBNikto]

4. What would Broder know about serious discussion of issues?

He has never met a cliche he didn't like.By a relentless pursuit of the obvious he has made his own contributions over the years to trivializing political discourse.Of course, getting a swollen head and becoming pompous has added to the ease with which he performs his self anointed tasks of being the "Dean" of capitol journalists.Now that he has to actually think he finds it difficult to do his job which is to be the mouthpice of the powerful and "manufacture consent".Enough said.

[hansolsen]

5. Dean Broder was just as bad as the rest of them. He let us down during

the leadup to the war. He did no investigative journalism about WMD on his own, and swallowed the Bush lies, hook, line and sinker.

Broder was tied to the end of Shrub's dock like some fat Gold Fish on a stringer, circling in harmless circles, useless, and vulnerable, just like the rest of them. Bush smoked the media like some old fisherman smokes a catch of Red Horse Suckers.

Dean Broder could have made a difference when it counted. Instead he stood down.