Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 2, 1995 TAG: 9502030002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT I. ALOTTA
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Perhaps it is a misunderstanding of what the media are all about. The media - the ``press'' when I started out - convey a message. Hopefully the message is sent out after it has been checked and rechecked for accuracy. The medium is not the message, despite what Marshall MacLuhan suggested.
Infrequently, media people become the news. Just recently CBS' Connie Chung made the news by airing the now-famous ``bitch'' quote by Newt Gingrich's mother. From the past, the names of Joe McGinnis, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Dan Rather and others come to mind. But for the vast majority of journalists, all they do is convey the message that we call ``news.''
Journalists are human, a fact many news sources ignore. If you stick a pin in a journalist's finger, you're going to draw blood. They worry about their futures. Does one think Connie Chung wants to remain forever in Dan Rather's shadow? Was not the Gingrich episode a way for her - and CBS - to get some high-profile news coverage? While journalists may disagree about how she did it and the ethics of the situation, very few reporters would leave the quote stand in a corner and not run with it.
Journalists are not immune to the world in which we all live. They believe in things like God, country, motherhood, abortion, taxes, politics - you name it ... the same as conservatives, liberals, the Christian right, the Ku Klux Klan and the NAACP. They worry about making the monthly mortgage, putting aside the money for their children's education, and the state of the nation. A member of the Fourth Estate is not supposed to introduce his or her personal point of view in reporting a story. Opinion appears on these pages and is labeled as such. Sadly, journalists are only human.
Journalists are only half the combination in the news. For every story there must be a news source and a reporter of that news. When a story appears and it contradicts what a reader or viewer believes, chances are that person will contend the report is false and the reporter biased. That's part of the problem. People want the news to reflect their own point of view, not reported from an objective standpoint.
Journalists have good days and bad, just like everyone else. They also have idiosyncrasies, like the man or woman on the street. They hate being lied to; not having phone calls returned. They dislike the phrase ``no comment,'' and definitely detest being fed a line of bull droppings and told it's filet mignon.
Journalists, just like everyone else, would rather associate with friendly people than with antagonistic ones. They gravitate toward individuals who make themselves available, who get back to them with information before deadline; who help them research their stories. In short, journalists like people who make their jobs - and lives - easier. Is that any different from anyone else?
Another fact that most ignore is that news is a business, complete with profit-and-loss statements. Reporters who help increase readership, which is used to bring in advertising, are more likely to get ahead in their field. Reporters who don't, don't.
Like every other working stiff, a journalist has a boss who makes demands, who inflicts great psychological torture to get the best out of the reporter. Progress in the news business is not based on seniority. Raises and promotions depend on getting stories your boss likes, and getting them before the competition.
It doesn't help a journalist's career if a source never returns a call or refuses to talk ... then calls the editor and complains he or she wasn't given a chance to rebut the charges that appeared in an unfavorable story. Newsmakers get upset when the words that appear in print are, according to them, misquotes ... even if they actually said them. When a journalist can prove the words were said, a newsmaker will say it was ``taken out of context'' or ``that wasn't what I meant'' or ``I told you not to quote me on that'' or ``that's off the record.'' How can we blame a journalist for being a little testy? Those newsmakers should remember the old public-relations saw: ``Don't say anything you don't want to hear on the top of the hour, see on the evening news or read in the headlines of The New York Times."
On the other hand, journalists are far from perfect. Just as we have disreputable politicians, we also have disreputable journalists. The number of ``bad'' journalists, however, pales in comparison. Journalists who misrepresent the facts are usually forced by their management to look for alternate career choices. Politicians who get caught usually serve out their terms. No media outlet worth its name wants to employ a reporter who doesn't - or can't - tell the truth. Remember Janet Cook and her Pulitzer Prize. When The Washington Post found she fabricated her story, they canned her!
Critics of the media forget the Cook episode and others where journalists have been brought up short. General Motors got a network to recant a story. Even Peter Jennings apologized for Cokie Roberts faking a background shot. The cases where the media have been caught manufacturing the news are rare. There are, however, other cases where journalists have been fed misinformation or blatantly lied to by a source. Again, we forget the main responsibility of the journalists ... to deliver the message. If we don't like the message, it's not the fault of the messenger.
Journalism isn't the easiest profession. How many people are willing to put their name and reputation on the line each day? How many can stake their career on information gathered from many people with axes to grind, information the journalist believes is true? It takes a very special person to practice journalism. They are educated in the ways of journalism. They go to college and learn to write according to the AP Stylebook and Libel Manual; they learn how to dig up facts and figures and present the information in such a way that the rest of the population can understand and use it to make up their minds. If we are unhappy with the news we receive, let's get mad at the messages, not the messengers.
Robert I. Alotta of Harrisonburg is an author-historian.
by CNB