A functional society is an ecosystem of co-operative and competitive systems. These entities provide strength, balance, and hopefully a capacity to fight toxins in their midst. A dysfunctional society, therefore, is one in which certain organisms grow too powerful and dangerous as a result of other individuals or other institutions being unwilling or unable to check their excesses. These monsters grow large with the ability to do tremendous damage. But even with nothing standing in their way, sometimes even the most powerful organisms die. They may rape their environment until it becomes uninhabitable, or they could prove unable to adapt to a new climate, or they might become infected and zombified.
The broadcast news media is one such dying beast. While it continues to grow like a tumor, it looks out the window and sees an unfamiliar world, and it looks in the mirror to see an alien reflection. And it is fevered, spitting blood and gasping for breath.
The way the networks have covered the 2008 presidential primary season is an indication of their deteriorating state. Instead of reporting on substantive issues and delving into policy (never mind doing actual research), they have put gaffe politics front and center. I’m not naïve. I know this occurs in every election cycle. And I know many claim that this is bound to happen during a primary tighter than any in recent memory with two candidates who share similar positions on many issues. However, there is more to it. Both the quantity and the timbre of the non-issues put front and center is a clear example of a tectonic shift in the world of broadcast news, a shift from hard journalism to soft journalism to hard entertainment.
There are a few reasons this is happening now:
1. The expensive capital investment previously needed to run a news agency is now unnecessary. High-power transmitters and ownership of the radio spectrum and cable bandwidth are no longer critical to the dissemination of information.
‘2) The flexible structure of the internet and the ease with which content providers can broadcast information to the public (i.e. RSS feeds, podcasts) has resulted in political news seekers viewing the internet as a more thorough and satisfying source. Sites on the right (Drudge Report) and the left (Daily Kos) have not only been successful—they have often managed to dictate the agenda of the news networks. To the previous point, it should be noted that, before the advent of the internet, people like Matt Drudge (a gossip columnist) and Markos Moulitsas (an Army veteran and manager of a college newspaper) could not have been expected by any rational human to become two of the most influential members of the media in a few years time.
3) The critical and commercial success of comedic news shows like The Daily Show, Politically Incorrect, and more recently The Colbert Report have influenced hard news shows to embrace a more absurdist take. This last point is the most notable because it has (at least in the short term) worked. There’s no denying that the O’Reilly Factor, despite having little journalistic integrity, is an enormous success. It could be argued that the show, along with the network on which it was born, redefined cable news.
So here we are, and Charlie Gibson isn’t really sure what’s going on. He sees an unfamiliar world where a couple of guys with a domain name and an internet connection have gained more influence in the political landscape than his once-mighty ABC News empire, and he’s trying to figure it out. So when the spotlight is on, he focuses on the gaffes and trivialities that have done wonders for the comedians and the pundits, and in the process, he contributes to the degeneration of his profession. I think about what it will be like a decade from now. I imagine an old Gibson, covered in age spots that make up can’t hide, desperate to stay relevant to a new generation with little patience for half-hour static newscast. I imagine a monstrous thing, staggering along, spitting blood and vitriol…a walking corpse.
Andrew Williams lives in Brooklyn and battles entropy in Manhattan. He enjoys epic sagas and bicycling.
Illustration by Loren Erdrich: www.okloren.com