They Call This Stuff The News

by Steve Kalb | June 22, 2009 4:18 PM | | Comments (6)

img_0419.jpgThere was real news this past weekend, and the networks along with most of the cable channels stayed home.

If you had hoped to turn on the TV to find out what was some call an uprising and others an insurrection in Iran, your choices were pretty much limited to two of the cable noise networks: CNN and FOX.

MSNBC, stepchild to a major television network with significant reporting resources continued with reruns of Prison Lock-up and other as-interesting-as-watching-paint-dry programming.

Cable and traditional broadcast networks, hamstrung by a lack of boots on the ground even as the Iranian government remain determined to restrict coverage, were forced to get their information from tweets.

“Tweets” you say?

Yes, 140-character snippets of information on Twitter. In America, Twitter is a toy. Overseas, it has become a tool. In April, protesters of parliamentary elections in Moldova turned to Twitter and the internet when the government shut down cell phones and cable TV.

Which in some way isn’t surprising. The networks have been hurling their most talented anchors and reporters out the front door and under the bus for the past few years and shuttering international news bureaus. That’s so someone someplace can sit in an office and make boatloads of money trying figure out better ways to get the remaining folks to do a lot more with a lot less.

Which makes perfect sense to the folks who are running the networks. It appears as though they have concluded that talent, experience and expertise are unnecessary. Why pay money for talented journalists when you can hire just about anyone to do the news these days.

Which is why when I turn on my $1,000 hi-definition TV I see pictures shot on someone’s $150 personal video cam instead of by a seasoned professional with professional equipment. The pictures are grainy. The camera moves all over the place to the point of distraction and to giving me motion sickness. But because it was done by a so-called “citizen journalist” I’m supposed to be impressed.

With the exception of the personal video coming out of Iran, which is clearly a special case if only because of the volume of video, I’m not a big fan of “citizen journalists.” Sorry, I have little to no way of knowing if any of the reporting is even close to accurate, never mind objective.

Wh ever thought this was a good idea needs to go get a new one.

Peter Jennings must be spinning in his grave like a lathe. So too fellas like Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, Ed Bliss, Charles Collingwood and Eric Sevareid and a litany of other broadcast journalism pioneers.

These folks, along with others who practice the craft, do so because it is not only our profession but because most of us can’t imagine doing anything else. To quote Richard Salant, the former president of CBS News, “Our job is to tell people what they need to know, not necessarily what they want to know.”

But these days almost anyone thinks they can call themselves a journalist. I could call myself a brain surgeon. Doesn’t mean I am one.

Then there is ABC, which recently decided it needed someone to report “good” stories for their morning show.

Since they couldn’t seem to find a journalist anywhere looking for a job, ABC was forced — forced I tell you — to think outside the box (a favorite saying of management types everywhere) and hire Melissa Rycroft.

Who?

You know, the young lady who was unceremoniously clotheslined on the last episode of The Bachelor and who came in third in Dancing With The Stars.

She is the perfect woman for the job: She honed her sunny personality as a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys.

That Melissa Rycroft.

Melissa notes on her Twitter page she just got a job on ABC’s Good Morning America to contribute eight reports as a “special contributor.” Her stories are expected to cover “fun, uplifting summer topics.”

In his WWII radio dispatches from London, famed journalist Edward R. Murrow ended his broadcasts by saying, “Good Night and Good Luck.”

It still fits today.







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Comments

Posted by: jawbone | June 23, 2009 4:15 PM

'citizen journalist' Now there is an oxymoron.

Posted by: robn | June 24, 2009 8:23 AM

ummmm...Peter Jennings was a high school dropout....so you really never know where a good journalist will come from. The problem isn't where information is coming from...the problem is that the people who know how to channel the information into a lucid story can't figure out how to get paid for their work.

Posted by: Grey | June 25, 2009 10:53 AM

I found this editorial to be completely ignorant, arrogant and inconsiderate of the current social conditions surrounding the rise in personal communication-as-news source going on, most specifically in Iran. Adding to my surprise at such thoughtlessness is the fact that I found it published on a .org; a community-oriented news source, written by citizens of that community. What else is citizen journalism but city resident Paul Bass posting digital videos of himself, walking around his neighborhood, giving his take on recent events?
The thing about Twitter-meets-Iran that you are overlooking is that--and in writing this editorial you seemed to have forgotten this almost as soon as you acknowledged it--the environment in which these events are taking place is one of massive and violent government censorship. Complaining about production value and lamenting the unfortunate circumstance you find yourself in with your high-priced television only demonstrates that as a journalist you haven't experienced such an environment. I know that I am thankful that I haven't. The reason you are limited in high-quality coverage on your favorite MSM providers is exactly because the only sources for information are those life-risking Iranian citizens who, through internet-based social networking devices, proxies and yet-undiscovered web resources, who remain vigilant in maintaining the flow of information to the western world. Of course your favorite networks and newspapers have standards for sources, but unfortunately sources that meet those standards do not exist in this environment. Why would you read something written on Twitter, or watch a video on a network that's claiming that it is amateur and unconfirmed and complain about credibility and production value?
Frankly, I'm also surprised at your disgruntlement at the appointment of someone like Melissa Rycroft as "special contributor" to Good Morning America; more an entertainment venue than a hard-news provider, it is only fitting that they hire folks from the entertainment industry. I figured such mindless programming was exactly what you had in mind when you bought that expensive television you're channel surfing on.
I suppose my entire response to this editorial could be summed up in three basic points:
1. If you don't like what you're watching, change the channel or go outside.
2. Sorry that the coverage from Iran's "citizen journalists" is amateurish, their government is kicking the crap out of them.
3. If you really want to enjoy that television invest in surround sound and a Netflix subscription.

As a student of media studies I'd also like to say that the importance and ubiquitous nature of new media is a source of value that should not be overlooked. Ignoring the potential of new media is what is putting many of this country's news publishers out of business, and why the existing news giants who've managed to stay afloat are all clamoring to establish their presence online. Hopefully for the NY Times and CNN it's not too late. I'm disappointed to see similar disregard coming from a media educator like yourself, especially at the hour when such media is demonstrating its potential to change the world.

Posted by: MKLUGMAN | June 26, 2009 10:24 AM

AGREE WITH POST BY GREY ON 6/24..WELL WRITTEN..I TOO AM GREATFUL FOR THE TWITTERS FROM IRAN WHO RISKED THEIR LIVES TO GET US THE INFORMATION...GLAD I DO NOT NOT HAVE TO WALK IN THEIR SHOES AND WE STILL HAVE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, BUT WHO KNOWS FOR HOW LONG.

Posted by: Edward_H | June 28, 2009 12:51 PM

Grey

Thank you. Well said.

The great thing about the NHI is sometimes the reponses in the comments are better than the original article. As is the case here.

Posted by: Steven Kalb | July 6, 2009 2:58 PM

Unfortunately Mr/Ms Grey completely misses the point, even if it is done eloquently. The ONLY thing journalists have to "sell" is credibility. When we take information from sources from which we cannot be 100% certain of the validity of the claims of that material and or the impartiality of it we then give it credibility by our very broadcasting of it that it may not deserve.

We broadcast the material from Iran because we can't get anything else. Given the choice I would also take material from a seasoned journalist just as you would prefer to have an operation done by a doctor, but if there is not available and you're dying you will take what you can get.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Incidentally....I bought the TV to watch news. Most of the other stuff on TV isn't worth a $50 set.

As for a free press being around...it will be. Probably not the way it is now but it will be as a democracy cannot survive long without it.

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