Dr. Forbush Thinks

William Randolph Hearst defined media in the first half of the twentieth century. Beginning with a single newspaper, The San Francisco Examiner given to him by his father he built a media empire of book, magazine, and newspaper publications, broadcasting, entertainment and syndication. If William Randolph Hearst had stuck with running his first newspaper in a traditional way he wouldn’t have become the media mogul that he became. This is because he invented a new type of news, the idea that news could entertain with a mixture of facts and exaggerations. Hearst’s goal was to sell newspapers and magazines, not necessarily to get the news right.

As we know today, controversy and sensationalism attract an audience and an audience brings money. Today’s local news reports have been chastised for being short on information and long on cute weather girls and cute animal stories. And to that mixture a few bloody accidents and local controversy at city hall and you have an award winning local news program.

Rupert Murdoch defined media in the second half of the twentieth century. Rupert Murdoch’s media style once again was short on facts and long on sensationalism. The idea was to get the story out as fast as possible, and not to worry much about the facts. In order to compensate for information reporters would be encouraged to add filler and get the story on the air.

Journalists and those who care about integrity, facts and truth look at these two media giants with disdain. However, those who believe that capitalism is the force that will make the market right and create the best society glorify these men. The majority of Americans don’t really understand the difference. Americans believe that they will be told what they should pay attention too, and they turn their heads every time that someone yells the figurative “hey look at this.”

Early in the development of the Internet people believed that there was finally a place where facts would rule over sensationalism. Newsgroups were developed as a place where people could ask questions and have them answered by experts. And, when experts made a mistake the people who knew the truth would be able to correct the information quickly in order to prevent errors in information from being propagated. But, anyone who has surfed the web recently knows that the web no longer is place where facts are the order of the day. However, worse than that, sensationalism is now the method many people use to get their names, and blogs and web pages out into the public forum. In fact, with over 8 million blogs and many million more web pages people are trying harder than ever to get recognition and publicity. Using profanity, innuendo, suggestive titles, and provocative photos trump the use of thoughtful reflection and facts. It seems to me that it is 1898 once again – times have changed but sensational yellow journalism is alive and thriving.


politics and journalism