WELCOME TO NAVIGATING NEWS

NOTE: My posts will definitely not all be this long; just wanted to explain what this is all about…

I’ve been working in media for 24 years (tv news producer, documentarian, newspaper & magazine writer). For that whole time, I have known something was desperately wrong with how information is disseminated to consumers of news and media. I incorrectly kept assuming someone else would come along and fix things, but no one did… and they have only gotten worse. I wrongly kept thinking if I wrote about things fairly, I would be doing my part to help counteract the problem. In the end, it was like trying to capture Niagra Falls in a Dixie cup (ie: it didn’t work).

Meantime, a disturbing movement has been growing in our nation among journalists. It’s a movement away from what they’re calling “both sides” or “he-said, she-said” reporting, where all sides of every story are presented so readers can make decisions for themselves. Here it is firsthand from media critic Margaret Sullivan, of The Washington Post, which is read by millions of people each month:

The core question is this: In this polarized, dangerous moment, what are journalists supposed to be?

Pose that question to most members of the public, and you might get an answer something like this: “Just tell me the bare facts. Leave your interpretation out of it. And don’t be on anyone’s side.”

That’s an appealing idea at first blush.

It’s also one that doesn’t always work, especially right now.

Every piece of reporting — written or spoken, told in text or in images — is the product of choices. Every article approaches its subject from somebody’s perspective. Every digital home page, every printed front page, every 30-minute newscast, every one of the news alerts blowing up your phone, every radio talk show is the product of decision-making.

We choose what to focus on, what to amplify, what to investigate and examine.

That’s why the simplistic “just the unadorned facts” can be such a canard. And that’s why the notion to “represent all points of view equally” is absurd and sometimes wrongheaded.

Ms. Sullivan goes on to invoke emotional events like Sandy Hook to get readers outraged (a time-tested, manipulative technique I’ll discuss in posts soon). But what really scares me about her words is this: I’m pretty sure she’s saying, Since no human being can be objective – why bother even trying? In case that was too subtle, she goes on to use the words “simplistic,” “absurd” and “wrongheaded” to imply that people who disagree with her are those very things. 

I know a lot of people in media and most are well-meaning. But here’s the bizarre thing that’s happening. Somehow, a massive chunk of them have convinced themselves they know better than you, their consumers. Even weirder? They almost all think, speak and write in lockstep. There are lots of reasons why (the push to be “first” instead of “right” definitely plays a role, as do today’s 24-hour news cycle and social media), but, as two recent resignation letters from staffers at MSNBC and the New York Times show, this is unfortunately not something I’m making up (in fact, the MSNBC resignation includes this quote, in reference to the broadcast newsmedia industry: “‘We are a cancer and there is no cure…’ this cancer stokes national division… [and] blocks diversity of thought and content”).

Meantime, out in the rest of the world, people are getting angrier and more frustrated with the media every day. Case in point: this Gallup / Knight study (which was conducted last winter, before the pandemic and civic unrest), showing, among many other things, that 73% of Americans “say media bias is increasing” (up from 64% two years prior) and a whopping more than 8 in 10 Americans “think inaccuracies in reporting are intentional” (ie: “the media is pushing an agenda”). 

Those numbers explain so much of what I’ve seen happening lately. People are growing more and more afraid to talk to journalists anymore, for fear of being mis-represented, mis-quoted, or both. And Americans in general are turning against one another as they consume more and more news and spend less and less time connecting with other human beings. Add in those Gallup / Knight study results, and you have a massive disaster, on the scale of a national emergency. 

I’m only one person, I know, but I decided it’s time to start trying to help fix this problem. If enough people start speaking out about this, maybe we can affect change. And the simplest way I can think to help fix this problem is to break down actual news stories to show people that, unfortunately, most “news” stories they read today are not actually news. Instead, they’re more like soft news, or personal essays, usually missing key information but otherwise full of assumptions, speculation and subtle (or sometimes not-so-subtle) personal opinion. They are also, more often than not, written to manipulate your emotions.

Every Friday, starting next week, I will break down 1-2 stories I find online and show you exactly what I’m talking about, and what they’re doing right and wrong. My hope, in turn, is that I can help readers learn to start looking at everything they read and hear in the media – ANY media, from newspapers and magazines to tv and radio talk shows (and not just hard news) - differently, with a highly critical eye. The way today’s journalists should be looking at things, but oftentimes aren’t. 

It’s important to note that a distrust of media and the skewing of news is NOT a new problem. It’s decades-old at least (I learned this by reading a 1971 book called The News Twisters, by Edith Efron; buy it online or watch this clip of the author explaining and defending her research). But here’s what’s strange - a lot of people in media have no idea they are not really practicing journalism anymore.

These journalists are massively overworked and grossly underpaid, and they have been living and working in such a giant echo chamber and repeating the same mistakes for so long (making assumptions, speculating, omitting key information and passing off personal opinion as fact), a lot of them actually don’t see them anymore. The same way you stop noticing the mailbox on the corner that you drive past every single day on the way to the grocery store. It just happens. 

One last caveat: this project might make you angry. We’ve all been subtly conditioned for decades to feel personally attacked when someone disagrees with us (look how well Margaret Sullivan utilized emotion and bullying tactics in her piece above). It’s why so many people are fighting with each other right now (pandemic + mandated quarantines + incessant news and social media consumption = toxic combination). 

But I disagree with the anti- “both-siders.” I think we are all worthy, thoughtful, smart people, capable of making up our own minds and of discussing things respectfully. So I am asking you to push through the anger and start looking at news stories in a different light. I am asking you to be open-minded. And I am asking you to ask questions.