The concentration of media ownership among a small number of corporations has all but wiped out independent journalism in this country. The effect is felt at all levels and in markets large and small. The Palace Thief sits in his ivory tower and wrings his hands.
Where does it all begin and end?
Some media people are motivated by ego. Others are motivated by dreams of unimaginable wealth. Mine was a simple desire to inform and educate. Those who seek power, position and huge paychecks tend to migrate toward the business end of the news media. The tragedy lies in the fact that the influence these folks exert on the media has diluted journalism to a point that the pursuit of truth and honesty has taken a back seat to the requirements of the bottom line.
Before you accuse me of being naive about the ways of our capitalistic society, let me make it clear that I’ve enjoyed (or endured) a long and varied career in the media business. I spent years in the front office alongside the bean counters and greedy company owners who possessed practically no understanding of, nor appreciation for the significance of a free press in our society.
Independent news reporting is lacking in our society, and that‘s bad. In today’s journalism environment, Woodward and Bernstein’s story about a minor hotel break-in would likely remain nothing more than a two-graph brief in the back page of the Washington Post. Few journalists today are even allowed to inform the public about dirty restaurant kitchens or shady car dealers for fear of alienating the business community.
If it weren’t for a small handful of internet journalists, independent journalism would almost certainly be gone from today’s media landscape.
Most media managers in El Paso will tell you the sole reason for their existence is to deliver the largest possible audience to their advertisers. That’s it.
With few exceptions, most can’t talk to you about their civic responsibility to provide public enlightenment. They can’t talk to you about the free press as the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. And, they can’t discuss with you the pursuit of truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues, as described in the preamble to the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics. They can’t because these values are counterintuitive to their professional upbringing. Most media companies are focused first and foremost on matters related to such things as advertising gross ratings points and the efficiencies of frequency and reach, terms that mean little or nothing to the general public.
Most Americans don’t realize that our society can’t sustain itself without a free press. American journalism was born not just out of a need to stir the masses into action against tyranny but to make reasonable, informed decisions about the state of a nation. The U.S. Constitution was inspired by the Greeks and Romans who, according to constitutional scholar Dr. Rufus Fears, understood that “no constitution, however good on paper, would work unless it was vitalized by civic virtue.” Our founding fathers knew instinctively that without a free press, the “civic virtue” could not possibly be vitalized.
In the last half-century, however, the character of America’s free press has been diminished at the hands of a small handful of media moguls beholden solely to themselves or their stockholders.
Thus, the model of modern media has evolved into a parallel of Ethan Canin’s short story about Sedgewick Bell, the troubled student at an exclusive boy’s school whose corrupt morals posed a difficult challenge for his history teacher, William Hundert. Later in life, the defiant Bell managed to twist the lessons of Greek and Roman history into a mockery of greed and self-indulgence.
“I live in a real world where people do what they need to do to get what they want. If it is lying, if it is cheating, then so be it,” was Bell’s final creed.
Sadly, Sedgewick Bell has entered the domain of America’s free press and has robbed it of its most important values. He is the Palace Thief among us.
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Roy Ortega is a journalist with more than 30 years in the television, print and online news business. He can be reached at rortega54@elp.rr.com.
