Sorting the pieces

http://CHESTERTOWN, Md. (April 19) - The media have started applying the horse race style of campaign coverage to daily reporting on government, leading to adversarial reporting that can obscure the truth just to create conflict, President Bush's chief political strategist said Monday.

How the heck did I ever come to agree with Karl Rove on anything?

     In college I majored in journalism.  This was in the late 70s, when a lot of people were flocking to communications as a major. Athletes saw sports reporting as probably a more viable career than playing professional sports. A lot of pretty girls saw television as a viable option.  A lot of serious types wanted to be the next Woodward or Bernstein.  Then there were a good number like me who wanted to use their love of and talent for writing as a way to earn their living. 
     The media was definitely on a slippery slope back then, but nowhere as far down as it's slid now.  I'll trot out creaky words to go with my creaky bones, but when Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace were the primary faces of journalism and "All the News That's Fit to Print" meant something, journalism seemed to be about more than ratings and revenue.
     Real investigative journalism is hard work. It can be boring and tedious.  It's about gathering solid information, double and triple checking it and making sure that it's presented in an objective way.  The most important stories are often the ones that require the most work, are the most time consuming to prepare, which can mean the most expensive, and unfortunately may be the ones which garner the least attention.
     Getting a soundbite is a lot easier.  Taking one comment and turning it into a story takes a lot less time than say reading the proposed U.S. budget, which is well over 1000 pages, if not several thousand and painting a cohesive portrait of what our government wants to do.
   So, when Karl Rove says something like this:

''We are substituting the shrill and rapid call of the track announcer for calm judgment, fact and substance,'' Rove told the crowd of roughly 600 students and local residents.

I find myself agreeing.
     When I read a newspaper, I like to amuse myself first with the comics, then go to the editorials before I hit the news.  I like my editorials spicy.  I want them opinionated. I like writers like Robert Novak because they tick me off and Molly Ivins because she makes me laugh at the way she says the things I'd like to.  However, I'm sick of the meanness.
     I'm sick of TV editorialists who pretend to be just commentators who act like whoever is the loudest, cruelest and who can interrupt the most often is right. Thinking fast on your feet does not necessarily mean you're the smartest.  I want a return to civil, orderly discourse.  Civility and orderly doesn't mean dull.  You can look at the Lincoln-Douglass debates of the 19th century to realize that.
      Personally, I think that Rove with his political maneuverings has to take some credit for the behavior of the media in the last couple of years. He's manipulated the media to get some results he's wanted and he's had to deal with the side effect of dealing with people not liking what he tried to do.  That doesn't mean he's wrong on everything. Those may be the last nice words I ever say about Karl Rove, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

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• #8 Comment from thesheatons 
  4/21/05 5:40 PM | Permalink

  Great entry. I think it's not only the news climate, but that there are so many channels and a talent pool that's not getting any bigger. Doing the foot work on the news is like writing a research paper. It takes time and down and dirty footwork. In this instant analysis climate it appears to be easier to be spoon fed than to do the dirty work.
  
  Jackie
  http://journals.aol.com/thesheatons/PixelsPoliticsPosiesandPussycats
• #7 Comment from jmorancoyle 
  4/21/05 1:43 AM | Permalink

      I'm ready for a change. The press has taken the fall for so much that is wrong with this country. One reason why is because so many don't and won't take the time to do the foot work. I hurt when I see the fall that CBS took when reporting about Bush's time in the National Guard. There was a story to tell. Not taking the time to get the facts and confirm those same facts two and three times, threw that story right into the garbage. It is the responsibility of a fair and just media in a democracy or republic to investigate and to make sure their fact are correct. This thing with Tom Delay needs investigating, not just by Congress, but also by the media.
  Jude
  http://journals.aol.com/JMoranCoyle/MyWay/
• #6 Comment from candace636 
  4/20/05 9:13 PM | Permalink

  I'm with a few of the others. Nothing uncaculated comes out of Rove's mouth.
  Candace
  PS - I majored in communications in the 90s...but I wanted to be the next MTV hostess. <g>
• #5 Comment from gaboatman 
  4/20/05 6:27 PM | Permalink

  Cynthia,
  I was a comminications major in college in the early seventies.  I went on to direct the Six O'Clock news a several tv stations during that part of my professional life.  You have made some cogent points here!  I'm with you on this one!
  Sam
• #4 Comment from theresarrt7 
  4/20/05 4:34 PM | Permalink

  ''We are substituting the shrill and rapid call of the track announcer for calm judgment, fact and substance,--
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Exactly what this administration has done all along.  Look what they did to Kerry--these people go beyond "shrill"  -- they are dangerous.  It puts me in the mind of a grayhound racetrack, only I wish the dogs would revolt and EAT Rove and all the rest of 'em.  Oh, they do bring out the worst in me!!!