Naughty, Naughty Newsweek
Tue., May 17, 03:39 PM
Newsweek has been naughty. It must to be punished. Just a slap on the wrist? If the administration has its way, Newsweek will be held responsible for every dissident Iraqi who has threatened any American.
So today Newsweek has issued a “retraction,” which is somewhat better than what I heard the first day: “I guess we made a mistake.” The retraction, so they say, is what the administration required. An apology would not be enough.
Well, yes, they certainly did make a mistake. But before we lay all the blame for dislike of Americans at the feet of Newsweek, let’s admit that this is just a symptom of an underlying problem, and it isn’t new. In their eagerness to create a sensation, to grab more readers, they jumped on a report without ensuring its accuracy (or maybe not caring whether it was accurate). Are they the only ones who do it? No, they just got caught sooner.
This tabloid journalism has been in use for the last ten years. Actually, it’s longer than that, but I think most of you can remember that far back, even if you don’t remember when The New York Times ran “all the news that’s fit to print.” In their race to beat the competition – especially for the print media versus radio and television – news producers and writers have lost their…good manners? Decency?
I terminated my subscription to Time when it polled its readers to find out whether they wanted the news it was printing. More than half of the readers did not like the stories, but that didn’t stop the dirt. I stopped watching “Sixty Minutes” when it began running more gossip and less news. But I guess I’m still a minority, because the slime continues to flow.
Forty years ago, around the time when my peers and I were shaping our careers, journalism had an integrity that was admired. My brother’s role model was John Chancellor, who had run the Voice of America and reported and commented for NBC news. That kind of journalist doesn’t exist any more.
The answer, of course, is to look for the root causes and fix them. But it won’t happen. I still have a choice, however. I can turn off the set.
