Traditionally, the media's responsibility to report the news objectively has been coupled with an underlying duty to serve the public, said James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, in a campus visit as a Poynter Fellow in Journalism.
Over the past decade, however, a concern for profit has steered the American media off course from its public service obligation, stated the journalist, who delivered the Poynter Fellowship's annual Gary Fryer Memorial Lecture Nov. 7 on the topic "New Media, New Menaces: What America's New War Is Showing Us About Ourselves."
He was joined by four alumni journalists who responded to his talk, which was also part of the University's "Democracy, Security and Justice" series.
A democracy, Fallows told his audience, depends upon both a sense of national unity -- what he called "us-ness" -- and a media with the "public function of telling a democratic populace the things it needs to know," which encourages this unity. Thus, while "the press is a business," he acknowledged, "it is more than just another business, [which is] why it has the special status of being protected by the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution in a way that a car dealership does not."
The shift to a more corporate mentality, said Fallows, has made it more difficult for the media to contribute to this sense of "us-ness" in America. "As the media converted to a more market-driven and corporate-run institution, increasingly its definition of the public is like that of other businesses, and this is a problem for democracy," the journalist asserted.
"There are lots of reasons the press has been pushed in this direction," said Fallows. "Individual journalists have become more like stars, the limits on newspaper chain ownership have been relaxed and there was the crucial discovery by CBS that '60 Minutes' could make a ton of money." Today's news shows, he added, have discovered it is more profitable to present the news as "infotainment," a blend of information and entertainment.
Thus, he said, "When it comes to big public events that unite us, they are mainly entertainment-type events; they are sports events or news-become-spectacle, like the O.J. [Simpson] trial or the Monica Lewinsky story."
Since Sept. 11 and the start of the U.S.-led war against terrorism, however, the press has done a better job of serving the public and promoting "us-ness," contended Fallows.
"I illustrate this with two words: Gary Condit," he said, referring to the U.S. congressman questioned in the disappearance of a young intern with whom he was having an affair. "He has been pushed off the front pages."
To explain the change in the media since Sept. 11, Fallows said, "The press, like the rest of America, might have been sobered about its explanatory, investigative, reportorial mission about the world we are getting into."
The war has also affected Americans' sense of public, "our sense of us," said Fallows. Nothing better illustrates the power of "us-ness," he said, than United Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field, killing all on board. Passengers' cell phone calls to loved ones during the flight indicated that some on the airplane courageously decided to overtake the hijackers to prevent an attack on the nation's capital.
"Within minutes [passengers on that flight] were converted into a powerful sort of 'us' group -- a feeling that it was worth sacrificing their lives not even for their own good but for some broader 'us' -- the nation," said Fallows. "I have no doubt that there were some people on Flight 93 who led the charge to convince the others that it was worth taking suicidal action."
The journalist went on to question whether the press and the public can sustain in the long-term the new sense of "us-ness" that has developed since the tragedy. For the media, he said, the answer will depend on whether it can handle the financial burden of being less of a market competitor -- which, Fallows admitted, could be "ruinously costly."
Whether the public can maintain national unity, he said, will depend on the policies of the government over the next year and its ability not to engage in partisan politics, as well as whether the public is capable of "staying interested."
He added, "The question is whether the initial wave of sympathy and support for people who serve -- the fire department, the police department -- results in any change in our mentality about service."
In other words, he asked, "How much has the fabric of our life actually been changed?"
Journalists take a look at their own profession
The four journalists responded to Fallows' assertions and raised some of their own questions about the performance of the media in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy.
Seth Schiesel '94, a media and communications correspondent for The New York Times, said he was disturbed by the media's compliance with the government's request that news broadcasts not run videotapes of statements by Osama bin Laden because of the possibility that he might be sending coded messages to terrorists. Schiesel said that he couldn't even find a written transcript of bin Laden's message.
"It's important to know what the enemy is thinking," said Schiesel.
Ruth Conniff '90, political editor of The Progressive magazine, said she was troubled by the overt patriotism in news programs, including the sight of American news anchors wearing U.S. flag pins.
"As a member of the alternative press, it's my job to talk about 'them,' " Conniff said. "I worry about what's happening to 'them' -- the Arab Americans whose civil liberties could be infringed on. ... There's an assumption that we are all in this together, that we all support the war in Afghanistan, little as we know about it."
Jacob Weisberg '86, chief political writer for Slate, admitted that "journalists have all had to think in a new way," and said that "the new responsibility [of the press to the public] involves a new level of seriousness." He asserted, however, that that responsibility includes calling others' actions or ideas into question.
"The press doesn't leave itself in a tenable position when it withholds criticism," Weisberg stated.
Tish Durkin '88, staff writer for The National Journal, elicited laughter from the audience when she admitted, "I watched O.J. and Gary Condit. I like human interest stories."
She added, "We [in the media] forget that to a certain degree we are entertainers. People have to read what we write."
Durkin concluded that the "downside" of American democratic life is reflected in its journalism, its politics and "everything else" in its culture. "Countries are like people and professions are like people," she said. "Their strengths are their weaknesses."
-- By Susan Gonzalez
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