Another guy slamming media...

[Rekaar.]

http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=27403

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean '71, a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke Tuesday at Yale about the shortcomings of today's print media and the importance of an ethical media in a working democracy.

In the symposium, titled "The Media and the Election: A Postmortem," Dean stressed corporate ownership of the media and the increased focus on entertainment as problems with today's media, and he emphasized the importance of diversity and regulation in fixing these problems. Panelists Evan Thomas, an assistant managing editor for Newsweek, and Martin Nolan, a political reporter and editor of The Boston Globe's editorial page, defended the media's integrity and objectivity.

"The media is a failing institution in this country," Dean said. "They are not maintaining their responsibility to maintain democracy."

One of the major problems Dean focused on during the talk is the media's increased focus on entertainment at the expense of investigative journalism.

"The Monica Lewinsky scandal exploded," Dean said, "and suddenly the way to get to the top [in media] was salacious gossip and sex scandals. There is no investigative journalism worthy of the name."

The television networks, especially Fox News, are most to blame for the increased focus in journalism on flash and entertainment, Dean said. Dean said these networks aim to entertain because "entertainment sells better than news." The infamous "scream speech," often blamed for Dean's loss to Sen. John Kerry '66 in the Democratic primaries, was partially a media fabrication because it was appealing for its entertainment value rather than its newsworthiness, Dean said.

"The media is trained to get the entertainment value and screw the facts," he said.

But Thomas said entertainment in the media is a necessary tool to attract the public.

"You do need to entertain a little bit," Thomas said. "You get people to read about serious issues by -- putting a [famous] person on the cover."

During the discussion, Dean said the media has almost completely lost its objectivity.

"You can't read a piece of newsprint very often in this country without being told what to think," he said.

Nolan defended the media against Dean's claims of bias, and Thomas said while there is a slight liberal bias in the media, reporters generally search for objectivity.

The solution to restoring an ethical media, Dean said, is to ensure diversity and cap corporate ownership of media outlets. He said he supports government regulation of media ownership.

"[The media] are incapable of regulating themselves," Dean said. "What's at stake is our democracy. If you think that American democracy can survive without an ethical media, then you are wrong."

Dean received a standing ovation and an enthusiastic response from the audience. Approximately 200 members of the Yale community attended the symposium.

Many students said they agreed with Dean's comments.

"Dean was spot-on," Aaron Ring '08 said. " He talked about [the media] as being entertainment and just profit-seeking, and he's absolutely right."

Tuesday night's symposium was the third in a series organized by political science professor Stanley Flink, who teaches the course "Ethics and the Media."

Though I disagree with his solution of government regulation. Competition and capitalism will ultimately solve this challenge.

[Thess]

Maybe if we had real news on television, instead of models doing it or both sides yelling back and forth - the television news would be fine.

There are a few people I watch personally (cable tv) that I like, personally I stick to newspapers for my news.

[Aabidano]

Competition and capitalism will ultimately solve this challenge.

I'm not that optimistic, they got us to this point. The problem is that the "news" services are bringing people what they (appear to) want.

There are decent news sources around, you have to find them . You certainly can't get a reliable view from a single source though.

[Hesten]

Competition and capitalism will ultimately solve this challenge.

I'm not that optimistic, they got us to this point. The problem is that the "news" services are bringing people what they (appear to) want.

There are decent news sources around, you have to find them . You certainly can't get a reliable view from a single source though.

Unless youre watching Fox News that is . At least to some posters in here.

[Voronwë]

in my opinion the best news program on TV is "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS. I think it is no coincidence that a program like this resides on public television.

but ultimately it is in the hands of 5000 households across America. In 2005 that should jump up to 10,000. These will be the homes with Nielsen Boxes. Those people determine what the ratings are, and the ratings determine what advertising sells for (in part), and if a show doesnt sell advertising, it has a hard time surviving for extended droughts.

The market has gotten us to where we are now, and in part because not all people really want "the news". A lot of people want infotainment, and that is why Bill O'Reilly owns the 8pm cable news timeslot - trippling the ratings of his nearest competition.

[Xorian]

Competition and capitalism will ultimately solve this challenge

I dont see really how. Competition will push newspappers and magazines to offer what ppl want to read so they can sell their pages, and more on tha, the most suscribers or readers you have, the more advertiser you will attract and advertising is not a little part in newspapper budget.

Edit:typo

[Seebs]

I get all my news from VV. Its fair and balanced.

[Winnow]

but ultimately it is in the hands of 5000 households across America. In 2005 that should jump up to 10,000. These will be the homes with Nielsen Boxes. Those people determine what the ratings are, and the ratings determine what advertising sells for (in part), and if a show doesnt sell advertising, it has a hard time surviving for extended droughts.

They should add Tivo users to that. Tivo already downloads user data and what they watch every few days. Although it shouldn't be the sole source, Tivo data including all of the shows that a Tivo user records as well and may not watch live, should be a factor.

[Voronwë]

they are adding Tivo to the ratings. they are going to have a meter on every "tuner" in the house. So if your PC has a tuner they will sample that. Your TV is a tuner, your VCR is a tuner, etc.

They are only going to count DVR views that are watched within 1 week of the original broadcast, mostly because they don't want to be revising ratings forever. They want to be able to say a week out, that that is the final rating and everybody can live with it.

Supposedly some networks aren't happy about the way the major markets are about to be metered (NYC, Boston, and San Fran i think start a different type of machine), because some industry insiders think that some ratings are inflated. Fox News Channel I have heard is not happy about it, but i haven't heard any CNN research people say that they expect a major ratings shift from the change in 2005.

Just a reminder, Nielsen ratings exist primarily for the advertisers, to give them some "standardized" measure of the media marketplace to help set prices. Anyway, Nielsen runs the show, and flawed or not, their methodology is the market standard.

[Rekaar.]

Competition and capitalism will ultimately solve this challenge

I dont see really how. Competition will push newspappers and magazines to offer what ppl want to read so they can sell their pages, and more on tha, the most suscribers or readers you have, the more advertiser you will attract and advertising is not a little part in newspapper budget.

Edit:typo

That's exactly my point. Some people like tabloids because they don't care what the news is. More and more though, we're seeing a backlash against biased media. The outlet that comes closest to objectivity will ultimately attract the large base of people that don't want to be told what to think. At the least I think in the next few years people will know what kind of news they're getting, and whether it is entertainment or not, based on the source (like it used to be).

Everything cycles.