Jul
29
How to engage with the media
Filed Under Sunrise on KGMB9
“You people in the media are all alike,” a lady told me once in a voicemail. “You’ve got your story written before you ever cover it.”
Now, I’ve worked with a guy who never showered and talked to himself, and another who told fascinating tales of belonging to a nudist camp, and another who was proud of being able to kill someone with his bare hands, so I am always amused to be told that we people in the media are all alike.
I’m sure lawyers, doctors, police officers, politicians and other members of high-profile professions are equally amused, and perhaps also sometimes irritated or saddened, to be reminded that others have formed ridiculous views of their uniform incompetence, venality, bias or whatever.
The strange thing is that sometimes I get emails from people who actually mean to engage me, persuade me, open my mind, inform me, change my views, interest me in covering a story, yet they still can’t resist mentioning at some point that they know I can’t or won’t change what I report because I’m part of a cabal or a uniform mindset that is at variance with theirs.
And this is the stuff that gets sent to your amicable Uncle Howard. Goodness knows what gets sent to journalists and commentators who take a more serious or confrontatory tone.
If you actually want to encourage a news person to consider a point of view that accords with your own, you might begin by (1) not insulting them with the accusation that they’re in someone’s pocket, and (2) not taking the position that all news people are alike, which may tend to undermine a more reasonable position that you’re about to take on some other subject.
To encourage a more amiable discourse, let me give you some inside information about how journalists really are, and how the news really gets covered, from someone who has worked for two wire services, three radio networks, and several local radio and television stations and newspapers.
- THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS “THE MEDIA.” There are many kinds of media and almost no sweeping statements apply to all of them. Most newspaper people haven’t got a clue how television works and vice versa, and neither of them understand radio. I know — I’ve worked in all three fields.
- THE “LIBERAL MEDIA” IS ALSO A FICTION. People who work in news tend to reflect the social and political sentiment of the public at large. Media people tended to be more liberal in the Kennedy-Johnson years than during the Reagan years. Younger reporters tend to be more liberal, just as younger people generally are, and then they become more conservative they grow older. Most newsrooms have both. And there are exceptions both ways.
- JOURNALISTS THINK THEY ROOT FOR THE UNDERDOG. There is a popular sentiment in the news business that it is the job of news people to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” It is true that the underdog is often a good story in the same way that “Mister Smith Goes to Washington” is a good movie. And it is also true that activists seeking change tend to put out of a lot of press releases, making it easy to cover them.
- OFFICIAL VIEWS SOMETIMES HAVE AN EDGE. Some official news sources get plenty of coverage because they are regarded as usually reliable. There isn’t exactly a “bias” in favor of the police and fire departments, but we tend to consider their information reliable, which is why it’s such a scandal when things turn out otherwise.
- INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING IS RARE. Most newspapers, radio and TV stations have limited resources. Most outlets have no investigative reporter whatever, and if there is one she or he often gets diverted to other stories. One reason some people come to believe that “the media” are unsympathetic to them is that they believe X to be true and expect a reporter to write it on their say-so. If you want to tip a newspaper to a story that requires some looking into, you might have as well approach an editor directly, because that’s who a reporter would have to approach.
- NEWS PEOPLE WANT TO UNDERSTAND. Instead of telling someone he’s biased, write, “I’d like to try to explain this from my point of view. To me….” You might actually persuade them.
A note about bias. Liberals think Fox News is deliberately biased. Conservatives for years made the same charge against National Public Radio. As a political independent, I listen for it on both sides, and, yes, sometimes I hear it, but usually it sounds to me like it’s accidental. And as an insider I know how easy it is for it to happen by accident. It is equally easy for you to jump to the conclusion that a news organization is biased. It happens, quite often, because of two interesting phenomena.
- INVISIBLE VIEWS. Suppose you believe fervantly that Democrats are good and Republicans are bad. If so, when a pro-Republican comment is aired on the news, you hear it as a point of view, because you disagree with it. But when you hear a pro-Democrat comment, and you agree with it and consider it to be the truth, it does not sound like a point of view at all, and may not even register since it does not annoy you. One result of this is that, remembering all the comments you didn’t agree with, you form the impression that you’re being subjected to a pro-Republican slant. I’ve been fascinated by this ever since covering the Ford-Carter president race in Washington, D.C., and getting an equal number of complaints from Republicans and Democrats, all convinced we were biased against them.
- REINFORCEMENT OF VIEWS. Whatever your strongly-held view of things, you can find a newsletter or a website or a cable channel that will constantly reinforce your own view, until you come to think of it as not being a view at all, but merely as truth. I’ve been fascinated by this in recent years, because friends and family forward me a lot of political email, both Republican and Democrat, both containing unsubstantiated slams against the other side, and then later I hear someone expressing the same view as if it’s known fact and I know where they got it from. Both sides do it. Opinionated media that reinforce your own pre-existing views can insulate you from facts or opinions that do not accord with your worldview.
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Well said, Howard! Thanks for helping educate the masses. In my point of view, I can’t see how anyone would think you were biased in your reporter. It always seems pretty level and fair to me. Keep up the great work. =D