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TRUTH IN THE MEDIA: Does it exist?!!

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The media in the United States has had its fair share of

hardships in recent years, and the American public has begun to

take notice. These troubles include, but are not limited to:
distribution of information devoid of truth inaccurate information,
loss of profits, plagiarism scandals, and so on. and an overall
distrust of the general public. However, our society has continued
to become more and more reliant on accurate, quick-responding

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information to keep us, as citizens, up to date on the affairs of the
world around us. So in an era where free press is really all we
have, who are we supposed to
trust to give us news that does
not deviate from the truth?
What gives these people the
credibility to do so and more importantly, what influences the
decisions they make in regards to content choice? One must
objectively remove themselves from the discussion and focus only
on honest, observable fact in order to answer these questions.!

Anup Shah, a well known social and political issues writer said, Free press is critical to

free, democratic society. (Shah 1) Our founding fathers knew how important the role of the
media was to the establishment, development, and the prosperity of our beloved country. In fact,
they thought so highly of free press and the impact it could have that they protected its right in
the First Amendment. There was no way At a time before any of the scientific breakthroughs of
the 19th and 20th centuries, it would not be possible for that these men could to have been able
to foreseen foresee the amazing technological advancements that today have become
commonplace. , but However, they did knew know the value of dispersion of accurate
information in a democracy. However, dispersion of this information would do very little if much
of the population was illiterate. And so a great triumph of our forefathers was recognizing that
public education would benefit society as a whole, an idea that European countries did not
come to grips with until centuries later because they were frightened by the prospect of mutiny
from the large population of low-income peoples.
This idea of educating the entire population
became somewhat of an obsession to these men,
and a revolutionary idea at that. For example,
Thomas Jefferson, one of the most notable
members of the founding generation, led the
establishment of the University of Virginia in 1819,
a very decorated university that still stands today.
The great patriots who came before us have laid
the groundwork for many generations ahead to
reap the benefits of education and as this industry of education has evolved, it is up to each
individual to take advantage of this gift that is public education and public knowledge.!

Today, however, the pressures felt by News Networks to generate revenue have dictated

filtering of content that may be viewed as too sensitive and could, in turn, lower ratings. While
this may be excusable in the case of explicit or graphic material, the community has a right to
know what is going on in the world if it is serious enough. The general public is beginning to
become aware of the omission of much of this content. To illustrate this revelation by the
general public, Svend Robinson writes after you've had somebody say to you for the
thousandth time, How come we never hear about these issues in the media, you start to
realize that the media itself is an issue. (Shah (Robinson 3)) It seems that now is the time when
people are beginning to see the corruption within this industry that effects the lives of hundreds
of millions, maybe even billions of people every single day.!
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Corruption in the media is not a problem unique to the twenty-first century. Lord Acton, a

British Historian said it best when he infamously said Power tends to corrupt and absolute
power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. (Acton) For example, Hitler
used the media to brainwash an entire country into committing acts of terrible evil, under the veil
that they were saving mankind and ridding it of a disease. This extreme example shows just
how powerful conquering the art of communication can be. Obviously, I have no intentions of
comparing the American media to the propagandists who sought to wipe out an entire religion,

but I use this point to illustrate just how massively influential words can be. And so they must be

checked and balance, much like the government that has allowed our great nation to come so
far in such a short period of time. !
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Fox News, CNN and MSNBC have been coined The Big Three News Networks in recent

years. All three are relatively young, but the comparison pretty much ends
there. Generally, CNN and MSNBC are viewed as liberal, with MSNBC
taking a much more extreme label of liberalism, while Fox News takes on
the conservative brand. CNN was launched by Ted Turner, a well known
mogul and philanthropist, in 1980 and the network came into the spotlight in 1990 while covering the
Persian War. Its neighboring network on the Government Control Spectrum(Carroll 5) is MSNBC.
MSNBC was launched in 1996 as a partnership between Microsoft and NBC until
Microsofts shares were bought by NBC in 2011.

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For over a decade, MSNBCs ratings have been consistently in last place. A recent study

has also revealed that MSNBC is the most opinionated cable news channel by
far. (Bercovici 2) This may be because of how
drastically biased this network has been both
recently and historically. This study compared the
Big Three News Networks in terms of what the
percentage of content was commentary compared
to what percentage was factual news, hoping to
prove that some networks were statistically more
biased then other networks. The Study found that
85% of MSNBC's coverage could be categorized as commentary rather than actual factual
news. This compares to the 55% rating for Fox News and the 45% rating for CNN. This shows
us that although there is a small divide between Fox and CNN, MSNBCs coverage can easily
be labeled as more biased than its neighboring networks. The network openly embraces the
liberal title, as evidenced by their slogan Lean Forward, which is a reference to their
progressive minded content. On the opposite side of the spectrum is Fox News. Fox News was
launched in 1996 by Rupert Murdoch and has gradually grown to become the highest rated
news network in the United States. Expand upon???!

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There have been a number of scandals in the United States media that have caused a

general distrust from the public. One such example is Operation Mockingbird, was a clandestine
operation carried out by the United States Government in the early years of the Cold War. This
operation sought to gain control over the main media outlets so that the government could filter

what specifically they wanted the populace public (what was I thinking) to know. Essentially, the
men and women in the advertising/media industry would become spies for the US Government
and only elaborate or shed light on
stories that the government deemed
suitable for the public to hear. Today, the
effects of Operation Mockingbird may
still be effecting the media and what they
decide to air on National Television or
what they choose to release through
other mediums including social networks, advertising, etc. When things stories like these are
released to the public, they are generally accompanied by enormous amounts of distrust for
their industry. J journalists who thought that the people they are working with have not been
compromised also begin to have second thoughts, which then, in turn, jeopardizes the way
everything in the industry runs both from an internally and externally. !
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Stephen Glass was a young journalist working at an up and coming magazine in the

Spring of 1998 called "New Republic" and was quickly making a name for himself because of all
of the "home run" stories he continued to churn out
week after week.Soon after, however, In the same
year, Stephen Glass was outed for completely
making fabricating up over half of his stories. He had
made up scenes, characters, plots, whatever he
needed for a nice story that the reader would soak
up. In 2003, he authored the fictional story he named
The Fabulist, in which the protagonists name is Stephen Aaron Glass, a story about himself.
(Rosin 3) This sort of story raises questions about how editors fact check their writers stories.

Stephen Glass was able to get away with his phony reporting for over a year, which makes you
wonder how many more stories are released by magazines and newspapers that have been
created just so that authors may gain fame or fortune because their stories are appealing.!
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A very unfortunate story came out recently about how an anchor working for NBC

"Nightly News" admitted that an often-told story he told had been fabricated after a line of
questioning had begun to investigate the story. Brian Williams has been suspended for the next
6 months after he admitted he had lied about being in a helicopter that was downed by a rocket
propelled grenade during the Iraq War. The initial report read that After a video of the segment
was posted by the network on Facebook, several soldiers called out Williams for stretching the
truth. (Stelter 20) This admission has begun a line of questioning to see if anything else that
Williams has reported has been inaccurate. including o One story he has told that claimed he
had seen a body floating in the French Quarter
during his covering of Hurricane Katrina is now
beginning to be re-examined. (Stelter 1) How
many of these stories exist today? Stories that
have been fabricated manufactured (to avoid
redundancy) so that the teller will be glorified as
a hero and make viewers want to watch their
show. I'm sure that there are many others, but
Hhow deep must we delve into the lives of the people who bring us the news to see whether
what we are given in the news is true or false. If it took over 12 years for the truth of this little
"white lie" to surface, what other false media do we receive that has been yet to be corrected. If
there are any positives to be taken from this outing it is that the public is becoming increasingly
interested in who reads us the news and why they choose to include specific content.!

Advertising also can have a huge impact on what we see on the nightly news. It begins

with the Industrial Revolution, which brings 3 main things to America: Mass Production, Mass
Distribution, and Mass Marketing. Newsweek had a special issue in the 90's on how to achieve
a happy lifestyle. (Univ.Washington 2) They did not include any negative publicity on smoking
cigarettes so that they would not run into problems with the people who were giving them
money, the advertisers. Award winning KIRO consumer reporter Herb Weisbaum, completed a
survey comparing prescription drug prices in stores in over 100 stores in Washington. The day
before the series was set to air, management forced him to delete the surveys. They were
worried about how, in fear that advertisers would object and wanted to avoid confrontation. A
consumer reporter at a major television news station said: "We don't bother with auto related
stories anymore. Car ads can account for 30 to 40 percent of a station's ad revenue. These
days, even a consumer education story on car buying can bring the wrath of local car
dealers. (Univ.Washington 2.7). These cases show us how much of an influence advertisers
have on the News Industry. It is a difficult dilemma for these networks because advertisers are
the main source of revenue and give the networks the ability to operate.!
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Interest groups are groups of people who communicate their stance on one or more than

one issue(s) to the public. These groups can have a large influence on the media because of
their high populations. Pressure; These interest groups use pressure to make their voice known
so that the news stations would be negligent not to have the interest groups "experts" to appear
on the nightly news.!
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The government has somewhat of an influence on almost every part of our lives and . T

this holds true with the media. Turnouts of elections and public image of the president are two
ways that the media can influence the government. But it is a mutually symbiotic relationship.
Sources will give information to the media from inside the government and expect their name to

be kept out of the story. This relationship between the two can lead to abuse and manipulation.
Anytime the media and
government are intertwined, it is
cause for corruption and it
needs to be stopped. In my
opinion, the government should
be completely transparent in its
work so that the public knows
how its leaders are making
decisions and why they are
making these decisions.!

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Operation Mockingbird is a good example of how the government can influence the media. This
operation sought to gain control over the main media outlets so that the government could filter
what specifically they wanted the populace to know. Essentially, the men and women in the
advertising/media industry would become spies for the US Government and only elaborate or
shed light on stories that the government deemed suitable for the public to hear. Today, the
effects of Operation Mockingbird may still be rippling through the media and what they decide to
air on National Television or what they choose to release through other mediums including
social networks, advertising, etc . When things like these are released to the public, they are
generally accompanied by enormous amounts of distrust for their industry. Journalists who
thought that the people they are working with have not been compromised also begin to have
second thoughts, which then, in turn, jeopardizes the way everything in the industry runs. Other
forms of media that can influence what appears on the news could be: journalists/reporters

seeing other news stations airing a story and then jumping on the story to report it, community
concerns as well as public safety also play a key role.!
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These major influences on the media have a major impact on what we see and hear on

the news. A lack of transparency in the media creates distrust and discord between the
government, the media, and the public. Such distrust can only be done away with if the news
networks are able to report absolutely honestly and accurately, and the credibility of the media
bodies is restored.!
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(These two could be combined to have just one overall concluding paragraph.) Too

often we jump to an opinion based on something we have seen earlier. This phenomenon is
known as confirmation bias and happens inadvertently to humans. We tend to use information
we have previously accepted as truth and equate it to situations with the same look or feel. So
who can we trust? Diversity of information sources and an open mind. The only way to avoid
being sucked into this vortex of confirmation bias is to read
material from different credible sources and shape our opinions
beginning with an open mind. This may be harder said then done
but if our ultimate goal is truth, this method is the most likely to
keep you unbiased, unassuming, and on your guard for
misinformation. So I implore you to do just that, keep an open,
unprejudiced mind and the truth will come to you.!

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Ryan Carroll, College Magazine!
August 8th, 2015!

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WORKS CITED!
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Shah, Anup. "Media in the United States." - Global Issues. N.p., 28 Jan. 2012. Web. 31 Mar.
2015.!
"Fox News." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.!
"MSNBC." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015!
Buchman, Emma. "NBC Anchor Brian Williams Under Fire." The Elm RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 23
Feb. 2015.!
University of Washington "External Influences on News." Faculty.washington.edu. N.p., n.d.
Web.!
Rosin, Hanna. "Hello, My Name Is Stephen Glass, and Im Sorry." N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.!
"Operation Mockingbird: How Much Can the Government Influence the Media?" PR Fuel Public
Relations News PR Tips. N.p., 08 June 2012. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.!
Stelter, Brian. "Brian Williams Suspended for 6 Months." CNNMoney. Trans. Tom Kludt. Cable
News Network, 11 Feb. 2015. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.!
Stelter, Brian, and Tom Kludt. "Brian Williams' Reporting on Katrina: What We Know."
CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.!
"Pew Study Finds MSNBC the Most Opinionated Cable News Channel By Far." Forbes. Forbes
Magazine, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.!
Town, Johar. "Can the Media Be Trusted?" The Express Tribune Can the Media Be Trusted
Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.!
Lord Acton, Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887!

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