Posted on 12/23/2004 3:01:43 PM PST by CHARLITE
Lots in the news this month. But are we really receiving news or are we receiving conjecture disguised as news? As a retired journalist, I can recall the days when, under strict orders, we could only write facts for newspapers. Oh, of course there were the editorial pages and the famous columnists. It was on these pages that opinion lived and thrived. Even gossip was permitted but generally only by a Hollywood reporter or what was called a gossip columnist --- Louella Parsons, Hedda Hopper, and Walter Winchell come to mind. Stray from the editorial pages and any reporter or editor whose opinions made it into print also received a pink slip. Ahhh, the good ol’ days, when the hat had a tag that read PRESS and the reader got “just the facts, Ma’am.”
Now, too often, the news comes from a reader in front of a camera rather (no pun intended) than a journalist, and the “facts” are interpreted for us. Guess we are just too dumb to discover the meaning ourselves.
One of the real problems generated by this form of news presentation, by either TV or newspapers, is that too often what we hear or read can be misleading or outright damaging to us. Two things come to mind now.
First, we are all worried about the pills we are taking for our aches and pains. We have heard or read that recent studies have found some to be dangerous. We get no information about how the studies were done or if they are even reliable. We are just told that some people who took Celebrex or Aleve have had heart attacks. Now that makes big headlines today. But what happens to the people who stop taking these medicines due to the fear caused by this so-called news? Do the heart attacks of a few miraculously stop? Or was the research flawed by studies that measured only high doses? Did the studies take into consideration any other factors such as previous illnesses? Suddenly the FDA is being blamed for not knowing the side effects of a drug such as Naprosyn that took 30 years to develop. But, just a few years ago, were not the same people complaining that the FDA took too long to release a drug that could be available in other countries? “What is taking OUR government so much time?” they yelled. Didn’t our mothers teach us that we can’t have it both ways?
Second, I keep seeing on TV newscasts the imagined Vox Populi on the Iraq war: “Bring our boys home today,” they say; “Why are we letting them get killed over there?” Or worse, “Make Bush apologize for the war.” Very emotional news. I can understand people hurting because soldiers are being wounded or killed in Iraq. But how many more innocent men, women and children would be killed in America, as happens daily in Israel, if the terrorists knew we had cut and run? Attacks worse than 9/11 would rain down upon us. How could we win against a Middle East Islamic Dictator and the terrorists if we no longer had an armed presence in Iraq? As Paul Harvey said on Tuesday on ABC radio, in essence, “The terrorists know that if they can ‘Vietnamese’ this war, thus molding public opinion to oppose the war, they will have won.” As Harvey rightly points out, wars are won or lost through public opinion, not just on the battlefield.
Who are the molders of public opinion? They are the opinion-driven reporters, editors, and producers of main line media such as network TV and leading newspaper giants like The New York Times, the LA Times and other major metropolitan newspapers. The voice of the people becomes one when only those who agree with the far left opinion are quoted. At the moment, this means that scary news about the dangers of medications sells lots of advertising, and the Left’s opinions about the War in Iraq and the larger War on Terror are expressed as if they represent the majority view.
I say, let’s go back to “Just the facts, folks … just the facts!”
About the Writer: Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and a former vice president of both CBS and Gannet. He resides in Indio, California, where he write op-eds that appear in several local newspapers.
Lee receives e-mail at indiolee@dc.rr.com
I'm afraid those days are gone.
They disappeared when "TV news readers", and print reporters, became liberal celebrities and started to believe their own hype.
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