Brushfire of Freedom
Ram Rants
Few industries in the world share the type of protection and status provided to the American press. One of the first rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights is the protection of a free press, which follows immediately behind free speech. It is clear that our founders felt that a free press was a key to the success of the form of government they were creating. In China, Russia, Venezuela, and other countries, the press is controlled wholly or in part by the government. In many cases the media is an arm of the government, providing more propaganda than information. This begs the question, “Why does today’s American press suck”?
Yes, it sucks. Hey, I’m not the only one who thinks so. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center indicated that trust in today’s American journalism is at, “...the lowest level in more than two decades...” which is more than 20 years for those of you who went to Berkley. Only 29% of those surveyed felt that our press can get their facts straight. It should be noted that facts, much to Keith Olberman’s dismay, are the raw material of real journalism. If your facts aren’t in line, your reporting is going to be skewed.
But, polls are polls. What other indications might there be that our vaunted and protected American press is screwing up the works? You need only follow the money to find the facts. Circulation, add revenues, subscribers, all are down and declining for many of the major press outlets like USA Today and NBC News. The New York Times has had many well documented issues in the past few years, as have several other major newspapers in the country. No, it’s not because of the internet. It’s because of the poor quality of their product. It does not take a statistician to see the relationship between declining trust in the media’s reporting and declining consumption of the major media outlets.
Want more proof? As of the end of the third quarter of this year, Fox News has increased its viewership 2% over last year. It should be noted that Fox News is a cable media outlet and not “the internet”. They beat out CNN and MSNBC, also cable news outlets. CNN and MSNBC had declining viewership over the same period. So, within the same media arena and same time frame we see one news source becoming more utilized while others are declining. This is not an indication that we the people are flocking to the internet for our news. It is more of an indication that we the people are fleeing those sources that we can’t trust, i.e. CNN and MSNBC. When combined with the Pew poll, it is not hard to see that poor quality reporting is the reason many people are seeking alternate sources for their news. The traditional media giants like CBS and ABC have lost the respect and trust of their consumers.
And they don’t care.
It’s easy to blame this all on a media bias. There are plenty of examples of ABC bias toward Obama (a four hour infomercial for Obamacare), or CNN (their entire coverage of the Tea Party movement) but I believe it is simpler than that. I believe that they have gotten lazy. It’s so much easier to simply copy and paste the info received from some “reliable” source than it is to actually try to verify the facts. The result is a near collapse in the quality of their reporting. In fact, it’s no longer reporting so much as repeating.
Now some basic marketing 101. You can price a product based on the quality of the product, placing it in a specific market. The traditional media outlets are, for the most part, free to the consumer. Internet access is not free to anyone, but much of the content is free once you have access. Neither cable nor satellite TV are free, and there are premium prices that allow access to certain channels. Some packages require that you purchase their premium service to get access to Fox News, for example. Thus it could be said, without too much difficulty, that people have to pay for Fox News, but they do not have to pay for ABC, NBC, or CBS. After all, most local television stations are affiliated with a specific network, so most local TV’s can pick up one of those three news outlets at no charge.
So you have a free product that is losing customers, and a more costly product that is gaining customers. When this happened to US automakers in the 1970’s, the source of the issue was immediately identified; quality. Product quality was the reason people bought a Toyota instead of an AMC Pacer. Sure they paid more, but they got a better quality product. If you consider information as the product of the news media, then you can see the direct correlation between the Toyota products (Fox News) and the AMC Pacer (ABC News). People are willing to pay more to receive a better information product. ABC, NBC, and CBS have all become the “Wal-Mart” media outlets. Cheap, easy to access, and a mediocre product.
Now I know our friends on the left might question this argument. But you can’t question the results. All of the traditional media outlets are seeing numbers drop. Major press organizations are laying off reporters, staff, and management. Several newspapers with extensive histories and past market domination have been closed. And, as noted in the latest numbers, the traditional media conglomerates are losing audience not just to the internet, but to cable outlets that charge for their services, and other information sources. People have begun to discover that there are better, more reliable sources for their facts and information. This is something that is beginning to dawn on ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS and the New York Times, just to name a few.
And they don’t care.
Contact Ramarious Brushfire Home
Copyright 2009. The published content is the sole property of the author. Any copy, use, or redistribution of any portion of the material without the written consent of the owner is a violation of international copyright laws.