TV Or Not TV

"This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it's nothing but wires and lights in a box." - Edward R. Murrow

The great white whale of American broadcast journalism said these words at the end of a speech to the annual gathering of radio and TV News Directors in 1958. And as legendary as he and his news team were, he knew full well that in the television universe, they aren't big money-makers.

I happen to love the film "Good Night and Good Luck," which revolves around Murrow's criticism of Senator Joe McCarthy and his exploitation of America's fear of communist infiltration during the Cold War. Here is the pertinent part of the broadcast...

But this stand and the issues Murrow brought to light every week had to try to swim in the sea of corporate media. We don't have a BBC or CBC here. We have networks that have to make money and we depend on the men and women who run them to have the courage to present the information that a free people deserve, even if profits might be threatened. But, even back then when the issues were so clear, it was tough as the movie shows when Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly met with the head of CBS, William Paley...

And there's the rub for all of us who have spent our working lives in this industry. The character being played by Frank Langella, and brilliantly by the way, is William S. Paley, the founder of what became CBS. He befriended Murrow in London during World War II and the reputation Murrow attained carried on into the post-war years.

But the issues were easier in the war. Good guys and bad guys and the fighting, the victory, the camps and the war crime trials. But during the Cold War, things became muddled. People turned on each other, left and right. Freedom of thought became suspicious. Hollywood, that had supported the war effort, was now a reputed hotbed of fifth columnists, thus the blacklist, and that led to the scene in Paley's office above.

And for real journalists, the problem was, and is, that there are real good and bad guys, real issues and events that can't be navigated accurately by simply quoting each side and letting the chips fall where they may. Oh, that is usually the goal, but Murrow also once said..

"I simply cannot accept that there are on every story two equal and logical sides to an argument."

Corruption, racism, political cowardice, and bad or dangerous decisions don't generally have two sides. But in this polarized environment, reporting those things may cost you viewers, advertisers and thus, money.

If networks point out that Robert Kennedy, Jr. is simply wrong on vaccines and will damage the overall health of a generation of American kids, there may be backlash, as he was Donald Trump's pick for the job. But in fact, as far as damaging kid's health, he already has.

The Atlantic Magazine has published an article on the family of the first child in Texas to die during the measles outbreak. The father told the reporter...

“The vaccination has stuff we don’t trust,” he said. “We don’t like the vaccinations, what they have these days. We heard too much, and we saw too much.”

What they heard came from people like RFK, Jr. and this man's daughter is dead because of it. And yet he stands by that decision. That's how deeply the propaganda has penetrated.

This nonsense gained a lot of momentum during the Covid pandemic, and internet experts were flooding the conversation with misinformation, quack cures and RFK was leading the way. Trump eventually caved on this, even though to his credit, he accelerated work on a vaccine that simply saved lives and/or prevented the more serious effects of the virus.

But my brethren and sisteren in the press still play the both sides game with people like Kennedy or the supplicants in Congress who approved his nomination.

And no matter what many critics will say, people do listen. And people have died.

And not just here. Coming back on Air Force One from Florida, President Donald Trump reportedly watched a Fox News story about the killing of Christians in Nigeria, which subsequently prompted a strong reaction and ultimately led to a US military response. This segment became a pivotal moment in his foreign policy towards the West African nation. 

The government there has argued that, yes, a lot of fighting is going on, but it's not a "genocide" and not just directed at Christians. More Muslims have actually been killed there. It's not a war on any one religion, but terrorism against all. But this is how powerful TV news can be, particularly when you have a President who takes everything he sees on Fox as gospel. That really means that the whole crew on that network has a real responsibility to get it right.

But, then there is the Bill Paley argument. And the Dominion Voting Machine lawsuit brought out that emails were flying at Fox after the 2020 election about how many viewers they might lose by reporting the actual, unvarnished electoral results. Their statistics guy lost his job after reporting that Biden had prevailed.

Well, now a military action has been triggered in a country most people couldn't find on a map because of a Fox report. I doubt that it will for many people there, but one would hope the responsibility that brings to the reporting you do will settle in for some.

And that is an issue for both sides. If prominent Democrats are exposed in the Epstein files, as some have already, call it out, condemn it, and make them go on the record. I'm looking at you CNN and MSNOW, or whatever your call letters are this week.

But those stories might alienate your liberal base, and lose you some viewers. So, the Bill Paley-Ed Murrow argument is again pertinent.

But a prominent GOP billionaire supporter now owns CBS. And Larry Ellison's son David is in charge of Bill Paley's brainchild. And he has named a former conservative opinion columnist for the New York Times, Bari Weiss, as Editor in Chief of the news division. She will have the thumbs-up or down power over stories, which we saw a week ago.

60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi had prepared a report on the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador where many undocumented aliens have been sent, with or without a criminal record or judicial process. It was vetted by the network "Standards and Practices" unit, and passed multiple times by network lawyers. It was aired for accuracy in the news department and was ready to go. Two hours before airtime, Weiss pulled it as she said it was not ready for air.

The reason, she opined, is that there was no other side, the administration's side, presented. Alfonsi said they had tried reaching out to the White House and the Departments of Homeland Security and State with no statement given. She argued that no response is a response in itself, an argument many of us have used when a public official won't return your phone call.

Now, anyone who has reported has run into this stonewall. I have usually found that when you tell them how bad it will look when you say they refused to comment on the issue, many ultimately relent. But all Alfonsi got from the White House was a statement that CBS should instead interview the so-called "Angel Parents" of young people killed by an illegal immigrant. Of course, that has nothing to do with the story, and those killers would be in a US prison for murder. But she should have used it if for no other reason than it doesn't answer any of the questions about the prison and instead tells CBS how it should be reporting.

That quibble aside, Weiss, who has never been a reporter, is obviously carrying water for the Administration, and even if Alfonsi adds that not germane quote from the White House, I'm not holding my breath waiting for an air date.

In the meantime, Weiss is planning more "town hall" events like the one last week with Charlie Kirk's widow Erika. OK, it bombed in the ratings, but she is planning more with the next one involving her interviewing Vice-President J.D. Vance.

And now, the Ellisons have made a bid to own CNN and other properties.

This is a marvelous book called "The Powers That Be" by the redoubtable David Halberstam, who wrote "The Best and the Brightest." This 2000 bestseller recounts the beginnings and evolution of four major news institutions.

Now, Time is owned by MAGA supporter Marc Benioff, Ellison owns CBS and Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, billionaires all. So the collision of information and commerce will become all the more a feature of our politics and our family arguments.

Given recent events in terms of how our kids are vaccinated and who we bomb next, the responsibility is even greater. For the average news consumer, that trite phrase from the pandemic, "do your own research," becomes more important than ever.