David Warren comes to some interesting conclusions on the decay of current legacy media, conclusions that you can mull over for yourself. But these are the observations I chiefly wish to note:
Nothing is new under the sun, not even decay, but the slide of mainstream journalism — not merely into partisanship, but into the assertion of falsehoods and the hiding of truth — has become a public issue. Polls show declining public trust: Journalists often rank below politicians. More to the point, I have myself noticed the collapse of standards from within the trade, over several decades.One way to put this would be: “There are no broadsheets any more, only tabloids.” News media have become indistinguishable from the media of mass entertainment, reflecting a larger collapse of moral and educational standards. Reporters have become scriptwriters; editors have become impresarios; and, along with the other aspirations of Hollywood, has come the pretension to prophetic authority. The role of the journalist has incrementally changed from “seeking the truth” to “shaping perceptions.”
I think this is a good statement of the nature of the problem. Not “bias” as such. No one can cover a story without bias – one’s bias is simply where one is standing when one covers a story.
For example, my view that the SETI search and allied phenomena are “spilt religion” colours the way I would write about a story like this or this, and the one just below. But that doesn’t mean I have a vested interest in shaping your perceptions. So long as I am entitled to my own approach, you are free to think as you wish about all that. Media people have usually thought this way, in my experience, even when heavily biased.
This newer phenomenon of attempting to build an imaginary world in the viewer’s mind via one’s news coverage (propaganda) is linked to political correctness – in other words, organized lying for the express purpose of brainwashing. Fundamentally, I think, who goes into media has changed in my lifetime: The social engineer replaces the reporter. The free Internet is one of the few defenses against that, and time and again, we can find out more from a Google search than from legacy media.
Spilt religion: Originally, T.E. Hulme’s definition of 19th century romanticism.