{"id":15836,"date":"2021-11-30T14:54:37","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T19:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/?p=15836"},"modified":"2022-07-19T13:28:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T18:28:00","slug":"the-11-biggest-reasons-why-news-media-is-failing-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/the-11-biggest-reasons-why-news-media-is-failing-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"The 11 Biggest Reasons Why News Media Is Failing Democracy, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"demand<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the first in a 4 part series explaining the many ways poor quality jouralism is hurting our country. Links to other articles at bottom.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The news media does a poor job of informing the public on critical issues for many different reasons. Here is a list of the eleven biggest reasons with details following.<\/p>\n

1. As for-profit entities, they are beholden to advertisers<\/strong>. No news organization can afford to alienate advertisers.<\/p>\n

2. Operating budgets are so low<\/strong> that investigative reporting is out of the question and generally, employees are so overworked that there simply is no time to actually do a good job.\u00a0 People in the news media are not lazy, they are stretched to the breaking point.<\/p>\n

3. Public relations companies crank out tons of free content that pollutes the discussion<\/strong> with half truths and outright lies. Content-starved organizations with low budgets snap it up and present it as news.<\/p>\n

4. Ownership rules were loosened by the government under Bill Clinton, so now, a small handful of companies own all the media.<\/strong> There is no diversity and these companies often use their media outlets to promote their agenda.<\/p>\n

5. The Fairness Doctrine, originally introduced in 1949 to force broadcasters to cover important issues by presenting competing views, was done away with in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

6. Sensationalized gossip and theatrics are actually preferred by the majority of the audience.<\/strong> Real journalism tends to be dull and boring with lots of details and facts.\u00a0 This makes the audience’s eyes glaze over.<\/p>\n

7. Agenda driven political coverage is actually preferred by some<\/strong> in the audience as it helps validate their existing feelings as correct.<\/p>\n

8. The demands of filling 24 hours 7 days a week are overwhelming so junk fills the void.<\/strong><\/p>\n

9. In TV News, star power<\/strong> often rules over anything else.<\/p>\n

10. To do quality journalism, the journalist has to feel OK with being the bad guy,<\/strong> the “snitch,” or “tattletale.” This goes against basic human nature of wanting to be liked, so it is much easier to do puff pieces.<\/p>\n

11. People with a vested interest, like politicians, find it easy to manipulate the media,<\/strong> so they do.\u00a0 ALL THE TIME.\u00a0<\/strong> In fact, the behind-the-scenes-circus of political theatre is a huge, thriving industry with hundreds of tentacles.\u00a0 As a result, most people are more brainwashed than they know.\u00a0 People are bombardeed daily.\u00a0 Manipulation of the media like this is the single most destructive factor in my opinion.<\/p>\n

Now let’s go into a little more detail on all these varied reasons, in order.\u00a0 I do this over 4 posts.\u00a0 Links are at the bottom.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 As for-profit entities, they are beholden to advertisers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The old saying about not forgetting where your bread gets buttered is one the the single biggest reasons why the news media is not able to perform adequately in its constitutionally mandated role of public watchdog.<\/p>\n

When a news organization relies on advertisers,\u00a0 criticizing them publicly will cause them to pull their advertising and destroy the media’s bottom line.<\/p>\n

Back when I worked at local station WSMV-TV, in Nashville, TN, I saw this swing both ways.\u00a0 In the good old days,\u00a0 (early 80’s and before) when the ownership and management was truly committed to real journalism, they actually allowed us to do stories on advertisers. Although it won the station lots of journalism awards and credibility with the public, the practice caused a few advertisers to flee, which definitely hurt the station’s bottom line. When new owners came in, this practice came to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n

The largest case of this was when the investigative reporter got wind of the fact that a large local meat packing firm has failed multiple routine government safety inspections.\u00a0 Among other things, raw sewage was dripping onto the meat from a crumbling building infrastructure.\u00a0 This company had a long and congenial relationship with the station and had spent lots of advertising dollars over the years.\u00a0 Once the one-hour documentary and 5-part series on the safety failures hit the airwaves, that longtime friendship came to an abrupt end.\u00a0 Who can blame the meat packer?\u00a0 They have plenty of choices on where to spend their advertising dollars.\u00a0 Why would they spend it with someone who tells everyone their meat is filthy, even if it is true?<\/p>\n

On the other hand, when a vastly different owner and management team was running the station while I worked there in the mid-90’s, it was routine practice to promise the advertisers that the news department would come and do a positive story on them, even though there was rarely any actual news value.\u00a0\u00a0 Some news directors fought against this practice and others shrugged and went along with it.\u00a0 Essentially, this meant the news department was producing advertisements by still called it news.<\/p>\n

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was the healthcast producer in the late 90s.\u00a0 I received a phone call one day from a very chipper woman who worked for a medical imaging company that had just purchased an advertising package.\u00a0 She wanted to know when I was coming to do the positive story the salesman had promised her. The news director at the time allowed me to say no, but the sales department was furious.<\/p>\n

There was another incident where the station allowed a local hospital to produce an hour-long show that was promoted and ran as a Channel 4 documentary.\u00a0 As a news department, we had absolutely nothing to do with the production.\u00a0 It was done entirely by the hospital’s PR department. It was a blatant advertisement that ran as an objective documentary.<\/p>\n

Another time, I remember a reporter being called off a story where portions of a high-rent apartment building had collapsed.\u00a0 Instead of that story, which featured probably criminal negligence from both the construction contractor and the government inspectors, she was sent to the grand opening of a furniture store chain that advertised at the station.\u00a0 There was no real news value there, so she made something up about the grand opening being an indication of a health economy.\u00a0 It was total b.s.<\/p>\n

The general manager used to routinely tell the consumer reporter that she was not to even think about doing a story on an advertiser.\u00a0 The car dealer selling recycled wrecks and claiming they had never been damaged?\u00a0 Off limits.\u00a0 The stories about insurance companies or questionable practices of financial institutions?\u00a0 Off limits.<\/p>\n

When the financial sector collapsed in 2008, I knew that inadequate reporting by the news media had served as an enabler to a corrupt financial sector. The news media had simply turned away from reporting on the widespread shenanigans and instead offered superficial, feel good stories that served more as advertising than news.<\/p>\n

I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that if the news media\u00a0 had done it’s job right, the widespread practices of predatory lending and credit default swaps, etc., plus the collusion of lawmakers with the banks to drop consumer protection regulations would have been exposed and stopped before those practices were able to collapse the economy.\u00a0<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yes, I am accusing the news media of consciously lying, thereby enabling the financial collapse.<\/p>\n

\"money<\/p>\n

I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had slowly seen the financial sector get more and more into these questionable practices.\u00a0 With the blessings of lawmakers (both Democrats and Republican) who depend on big money to win elections, state and federal consumer protection regulations were largely eliminated.\u00a0 This allowed the banks and financial institutions to behave more like legalized loan sharks.<\/p>\n

I saw it with my own eyes time and time again, but we weren’t allowed to report much on it.\u00a0 Larger news entities like the networks not only ignored it, they consciously promoted the public relations drivel that the banks and Wall Street paid big bucks for.<\/p>\n

The PR spin exonerated the financial institutions and placed the blame on the Community Reinvestment Act passed by Jimmy Carter.\u00a0 This scenario claimed that government forced<\/em> <\/strong>the banks to loan money to minorities and poor people who greedily and irresponsibly took out loans over their heads.<\/p>\n

That scenario\u00a0 is still believed by a many today.\u00a0 It is inaccurate.\u00a0\u00a0 That’s not to say that there were not instances of people taking out loans over their abilities to repay, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to the harm caused by bank practices that were unethical and deceitful.<\/p>\n

When Jon Stewart called out Jim Cramer on the Daily Show, I stood up and cheered. But it was too little, too late.\u00a0 And it should have come from the news media, not a comedian!
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

The economic collapse is just one huge repercussion of America’s bad news media.\u00a0 Feeling angry yet?\u00a0 The Iraq War is another.<\/p>\n

I was never fooled by the PR spin in the lead up to the Iraq War.\u00a0 I know fake TV news when I see it, but most do not.<\/p>\n

I also saw the economic collapse coming and warned all my friends about it.\u00a0 Most of them told me I was unduly paranoid, they felt like the economy was in great shape.\u00a0 The media told them so!\u00a0 Then, WHAM!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Most in the news media acted like they were shocked, simply shocked<\/em> that the economy could tank, seemingly overnight without warning.\u00a0 Excuse me, but there were plenty of warnings.\u00a0 The collapse was years in the making. \u00a0 Anyone who thought there were no warnings or, that it happened quickly, simply does not know what is going on, or they are lying.\u00a0 The news media is supposed to know what is going on, so I do not think many of them can use that as an excuse.<\/p>\n

How did I, Lorraine Grula, a small time local video producer see the economic collapse coming from a mile away and all the big-wig experts missed it? They’re dishonest enough to ignore the shenanigans and go along with the game, that’s why. If I had to guess, I’d say a lot of them were not really surprised when it all collapsed, they just had not bothered to inform the public of it.<\/p>\n

How did I, Lorraine Grula, a small time local video producer know that there were no WMD in Iraq and that the entire reasons given for going to war were a lie?\u00a0 Because I could see through the facade of the circus known as TV News, that’s why.\u00a0 I know a staged event when I see it and the run-up to the Iraq War was a calculated and staged event by the government and aided and abetted by the dysfunctional news media.<\/p>\n

As I hope you can see, there are many varied reasons why the news media does such a poor j ob of informing people.\u00a0 So far, this post has given details on just the very first reason, advertising dollars.\u00a0 For details on the remaining reasons, please see other articles in this continuing series.<\/p>\n

There is simply too much information for one post, so I spread out the details for the 11 specific reasons.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n

Lorraine Grula<\/p>\n

\"news<\/p>\n

Please consider signing the Demand Real Journalism petition<\/a>.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Support Demand Real Journalism fundraiser.<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Here are 15 articles on the blog for Demand Real Journalism, plus one about me, in case that is a concern.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Demand Real Journalism: How Will It Fix This Mess?<\/a><\/p>\n

Letter to POTUS for Demand Real Journalism<\/a><\/p>\n

Demand Real Journalism: Democracy Depends on Journalism and the Founding Fathers Knew It<\/a><\/p>\n

Why Reality and Facts Matter. A Well-Functioning Media is Critical for Freedom in America<\/a><\/p>\n

More Thoughts on Fixing the News Media\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Demand Real Journalism: Let\u2019s First Define Journalism<\/a><\/p>\n

The 11 Biggest Reasons Why News Media Is Failing Democracy, Part 1<\/a><\/p>\n

The 11 Biggest Reasons Why TV News is Failing Democracy, Part 2<\/a><\/p>\n

The 11 Biggest Reasons Why News Media is Killing Democracy, part 3<\/a><\/p>\n

The 11 Biggest Reasons Why News Media is Killing Democracy, part 4<\/a><\/p>\n

Demand Real Journalism: How Dysfunctional News Media Affects EVERYTHING!\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Demand Real Journalism: It All Started with the Sweaty Brow of a Homely Man\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Demand Real Journalism: Why I Embrace \u201cDare to be Dull\u201d as a TV News Slogan<\/a><\/p>\n

Why Relying on an Advertising Business Model Dooms Journalism<\/a><\/p>\n

Commercialism Overtakes Journalism<\/a><\/p>\n

Hi, I\u2019m Lorraine Grula, News Nerd<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the first in a 4 part series explaining the many ways poor quality jouralism is hurting our country. Links to other articles at bottom.\u00a0 The news media does a poor job of informing the public on critical issues for many different reasons. Here is a list of the eleven biggest reasons with details […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2706],"tags":[2928,2929,2990,2931,2930],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/fake-news-royalty-free-image-1.jpg?fit=658%2C371&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15836"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18954,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15836\/revisions\/18954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}