What's News?

Spenser Dopp

sd470213@ohio.edu

Journalists do not always have carte blanche over what stories they deal with. Sometimes journalists are asked to cover stories that they would prefer not to, and other times they are asked not to cover stories that they truly believe in. How journalists react in these situations tells us a great deal about them and the industry in which they work.

In 2005, Bob Costas declined to host CNN’s Larry King Live, saying, “I didn’t think the subject matter of Thursday’s show was the kind of broadcast I should be doing.” The broadcast in question was about the May 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, a story that had already been grossly overreported. Costas was praised for his decision to not pile onto the redundant and unproductive news coverage of a months-old disappearance.

In 1997, Carol Marin resigned from her job as an anchor at WMAQ in Chicago because she disagreed with the decision to bring Jerry Springer onto the news.  She felt that Jerry Springer and his material were too sleazy for a serious news operation.

Costas and Marin both faced pressure from above to conform to what they considered a sub-standard practice of journalism. Rather than meekly accept their assignments and perfunctorily carry them out, these public servants decided to stand up for their principles in support of good journalism.

Credit: nytimes.com

I do not have a concrete definition of what news is or should be, but I can tell you now that something like Jerry Springer does not make the cut. Neither does incessantly repetitive coverage of, say, the disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines plane. Another example of what I consider faux-news is coverage of celebrities.

When Justin Bieber egged his neighbor’s house, everyone in America who watched the evening news was made aware. I cannot understand why. The time and resources spent on that story could have been devoted to covering science, politics, law, economics or just about any other topic that would have been infinitely more beneficial to bring into the public eye than the latest shenanigans of a young pop star. It’s a shame that the people working at our top news networks apparently do not have a problem airing stories devoid of any value beyond perhaps entertainment. News is meant to serve many purposes, and entertainment is definitely not near the top of the list.

Either the journalists who cover stories like Justin Bieber throwing eggs truly believe that these stories are newsworthy, or they recognize that these stories are garbage but choose to pursue and air them anyway in place of real news. In any case, I am disheartened and incensed. News is meant to play an important role in our democratic society, and every “news” story about celebrity gossip or skydiving cats distracts from that role and that mission to the detriment of our entire culture.

I got into journalism because when I watch or read what passes for national news I feel upset. I worry that this faux-news is damaging to the good name of American journalism, as well as to the audiences that news journalists are meant to work with and for. There may be a place in the world of journalism for celebrity gossip, scare tactics and otherwise frivolous stories, but that place is not on the prime time slots of our nation’s top news networks or on the front pages of our leading newspapers.

I hope that this trend of reporting bunk news stories is on the way out. I hope that more journalists and news consumers alike begin to acknowledge that these stories have no business taking resources and attention away from truly newsworthy subjects that could stand to benefit us all.