In this post, I want to focus on the evolution of the Fourth Estate in the US. It would be an understatement to say that, over the last half dozen decades, the influence and integrity of that pillar of democracy has gradually evolved from the creator of an informed public to a plethora of clown shows, chat shows less focused on informing and more on entertaining. To trace the decay, let’s go back to 1972.
One of the drivers of this evolution was the highly successful campaign against political corruption that became known as Watergate. The concerted effort to muzzle independent news organizations began in earnest with the fall of a US President and the realization that an informed public could overturn the prospects of wealthy interests and entrenched political players. When coupled with the reaction to the release of the pentagon papers and the protests against the war in Vietnam, it became clear an ‘excess of democracy’ was a threat to established interests – particularly the wealthy and entrenched political interests. (Some years later, the owner of the Washington Post would direct the newspaper to not endorse a candidate in what seemed a bid for political favor and personal financial gain. But that’s another story for another post.)
As the goal of certain groups was to gain control of the US government and reduce the power of the electorate, the need to make sure that Watergate never happened again became a priority. That organizations like the Washington Post and the New York Times would never again be able to interfere with the great plan.
The first step in the decline occurred in 1980 when Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld founded CNN as a 24-hour cable news channel. (Something it most certainly is not today.) The idea was relatively straight forward – to employ a staff of professional journalists and provide round-the-clock updated news. In the early days, the network fulfilled that mission admirably. But there was an Ethiopian in the fuel supply. Ad revenue was essential to the survival and growth of CNN. It was dependent on income and, by that, ratings. The organization became a slave to its viewers. The seed was inadvertently planted. News networks could be for-profit organizations. (CNN is presently owned by the illusion maker, Warner Brothers. But I am getting ahead of myself yet again).
The next step towards the low rent fourth estate came in 1986 when the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) was purchased by the for-profit company Capital Cities. Contributions to certain sitting senators, congressmen and the president paved the way by overturning a fundamental idea behind the fourth estate – that a news network was in the business of informing the public rather than making profits. Later, in 1996, the network was purchased by a cutting-edge company in illusions and delusions – Walt Disney. The news industry in the US continued morphing into the entertainment business.
And so began a series of acquisitions. The objective was to turn the news business into a source of entertainment and carefully curated information. In short order, all the networks were acquired by for-profit companies and tasked with increasing ratings and revenue. In July of 1996, MSNBC was launched. Shortly thereafter, in October of the same year, Fox News was founded. The news industry became Balkanized, and the viewer population was divided up based on political and social proclivities. Viewers drove ratings and ratings began to determine the nature of what was presented. Journalists were dissuaded from following certain stories. From presenting information that might negatively impact ratings and, by that, ad sales. The general message was, we are a business, and the success of a business is measured by its revenue growth and ratings.
All might have gone smoothly and according to the plans of the masters of the new news business except for one problem – journalistic integrity. Although the industry had drastically changed direction, many of the journalists were distinctly old school. And, besides, they were too expensive and paying them, and their expense accounts, depressed profits. It was clear that, if the new news business was going to thrive, most of these dinosaurs had to be off-loaded in favor for another, far less expensive and more malleable alternative.
In news rooms all over the country, the question was asked. How can we reduce costs, drive ratings and neutralize the irritating tendency of professional journalists to find and expose the truth? The answer came first on Fox news but spread like wildfire. We cut back on traditional journalism and fill our schedule with a series of talk shows. And so the alternative came into being – opinions became the currency – truth was dustbined in favor of ratings and ad revenue.
The benefits of this strategy quickly became apparent. Legions of reporters were let go in favor of talk show hosts who were in love with the sound of their own voice and certain that the world needed desperately to hear what they had to say – even when it was trivial and irrelevant to the lives of the viewers – as long as it was entertaining. And they were cheap beyond belief. For a couple of million you could get one of these carney barkers to gather a guest list of marginal celebrities who would gladly work for peanuts just to have the exposure. The low rent Fourth Estate came into being. The evolution from news to entertainment was complete.
There was another benefit that was not lost on the bookkeepers. Selling opinions about politics was much more profitable than reporting the news. Failed politicians, former government employees – particularly retired Federal prosecutors – were recruited. The non-stop coverage of politics was born. Any reference to the news was secondary to the prognostications of the prognosticators. Eventually the news became a faint shadow masked by the raging egos of the hosts and their guests.
(As an aside, I once put a chess clock on one of the hosts. He had five guests. I timed his mike dominance against the amount of time he allowed his guests to speak. As it turned out, he got more than 70% of the mike time. They weren’t his ‘guests’, but his audience. Critics call his show the Morning Blow.)
This model was so successful that it spawned an entirely new group of networks. As opposed to the cost and complexity of standing up traditional news rooms, it was simple to launch and maintain such a network. You simply recruited a group of ‘influencers’ to host talk shows with specific agendas. They invariably came cheap. You matched their personas and political views to your intended audience. And you were in business.
It was Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, who famously said, “Let me control the media and I will turn any nation into a herd of pigs.” It is clear that this has happened in the US. The media is now controlled by commercial interests that are pursuing an agenda contrary to the interests of the citizens of the country and will bow before any authoritarian threat. Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy.” That battle, at least in the US, is now over. Goebbels trumped Jefferson.
© Earl Smith.