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Mark Tapscott (back to story)
January 3, 2002
Is Media Bias Headed for the Ash Heap of History?
What do the fall of the Berlin Wall, demise of the Soviet Union, election of a GOP Congress and President Bush’s decision to pull the United States out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty have in common? For years for most conservatives, those four milestones were simply unthinkable. “I never expected that to happen in my lifetime” was often heard in our excited discussions of the latest incredible news about the Wall coming down or the Soviet tanks withdrawing from Eastern Europe or Newt Gingrich becoming Speaker of the House.
Something else just as unthinkable may be coming, as evidenced by former CBS News reporter Bernard Goldberg’s instant New York Times best-seller, “Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News.”
By itself, Goldberg’s fascinating book might not mean much beyond a season of frequently heated interviews of its author by former colleagues and perhaps a bit of fleeting newsroom soul-searching. Viewed in conjunction with recent events and trends, however, Bias could be another sign of a revolution that is reshaping America’s newscape. Put another way, the end of the Liberal Media Establishment could be right around the corner.
Consider these three reasons. First, the networks are leaking viewers like the Titanic, post-collision. In 1980, three of every four adult Americans tuned into the evening network news programs of CBS, NBC and ABC.
Today, a mere 43 percent of evening viewers watch a network newscast. In the private sector, an executive who loses a third of his company’s customers is soon unemployed. Just ask Roger Smith, once at the helm of General Motors.
Unlike 1980, viewers now have alternatives. In classic free market economics fashion, the growing demand for news information has created thriving markets for new methods of delivery.
First CNN and more recently Fox News have captured huge audiences that aren’t likely to switch back to the networks anytime soon. Among younger people, Internet news sources are a growing factor.
But wait, there’s more! Millions of Americans also now get much of their public policy news from the hundreds of talk radio shows like those of Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlesinger. Broadcast news has also lost audience to specialized media like all-news radio, newsletters and the countless publications put out by non-profit advocacy groups.
As Goldberg so aptly puts it: “Today there are cable and satellite TV and the Internet, competition that Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley didn’t even have to think about.”
The second factor that could soon help bring about the end of network news bias is the impact of Sept. 11 on Americans’ expectations of the news media. In the first few days following the terrible events of that day, the network news operations returned to the basics of journalism, generally reporting the facts as quickly and as accurately as possible.
As a result, millions of people rediscovered the utility and importance of hard news. The question now is how many of these returning viewers will the networks retain. Already, there are signs of the slide back into commercialized sensationalism and celebrity features, seasoned with generous helpings of liberally biased “news.” Business-as-usual reporting will spur a return to falling ratings.
Now along comes the third factor, the Goldberg book. Initial demand is so great that publisher Al Regnery has added 120,000 copies to the first printing of 80,000. Sales should remain strong because Bias is well-written, liberally sprinkled with juicy tidbits about media luminaries and quite persuasive, thanks to Goldberg’ s insider status.
Sooner or later, falling ratings and economic necessity will force a network news executive to mandate the Fox formula, the “we report, you decide” approach that stresses fairness and accuracy. When that network’s ratings turn around, how long do you think it will take the other two broadcast giants to follow suit?
Then conservatives everywhere will be saying “wow, I never thought I’d see the day when I liked the way Dan Rather reports the news.” And it could happen much sooner than any of us think.
Mark Tapscott is Director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation, a TownHall.com member group. Contact Mark Tapscott
©2001 The Heritage Foundation
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