!

TRUTH IN THE MEDIA: Does it exist?!!

!

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, loss of profits,
plagiarism and so on. However, our society has continued to
become more and more reliant on accurate, quick-responding
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 that these men could have foreseen the amazing
technological advancements that today have become commonplace, but they knew 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.!
!

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. !
!

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.

!
!

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
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 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. 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.!

!
!

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 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 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. !

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. In the same year, Stephen Glass
was outed for completely making 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)!
!

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. 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 one story he
has told that claimed he had seen a body floating
in the French Quarter during his covering of
Hurricane Katrina. (Stelter 1) How many of
these stories exist today? Stories that have
been fabricated 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
how 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 it is
that the public is becoming increasingly interested in who reads us the news and why they
chose 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. 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 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.!
!

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.!

The government has somewhat of an influence on almost every part of our lives. 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. 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.!

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.!
!

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.!

!
!
!
WORKS CITED!
!

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!

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
10

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!

!
!
!
!
11

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
12

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
13

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
14

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!

15