Mass Media & an Independent Press
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More than two hundred years ago, the drafters of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution gave "the press" a unique, privileged status among American businesses: freedom from government censorship of its editorial content, formally guaranteed in the language of the Constitution. Two hundred years later, we hardly speak anymore about "the press;" instead we speak of "the media," a term which is technically a Latin derived plural, but is more often not used in the singular. "The media is ..." in part what used to be called the press newspapers and magazines but it also includes radio, broadcast and cable television, movies (in the theater, on TV, and at your neighborhood video store). "900" telephone toll number services are a recent addition to "the media," and others are no doubt in store. The mass media are our window on the world; in fact, our window in virtually everything outside our own neighborhood. Was open use of crack cocaine and other illegal drugs on the rise even "out of control" during the last few years? Was the real estate market booming, at least in most of the country, until last year at any rate? The media assured us that both of these things are true. Few of us could easily check these stories directly; if you live in a neighborhood with crack dealers at the corner, it is unlikely that you saw house prices shooting up by $100,000 every few months, and vice versa. Was Saddam Hussein's occupation of Kuwait extraordinarily brutal?
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interview. Instead of coming off as a pol who was badgering a reporter to avoid giving the public straight answers to tough questions, Bush managed to paint himself as something like an "ordinary guy" with a sharp comeback to a pushy television celebrity who was badgering him.
Television has led the way into turning reporters into celebrities, but other media have followed. Magazine and newspaper reporters are still, on the whole, relatively anonymous. Even the more serious public affairs television shows, such as the Sunday morning interview shows, or PBS's Washington Week in Review, maintained a low key talking heads atmosphere (in part, perhaps, as a necessary component of their "serious" image). Yet thanks in large part to CNN even this is breaking down. Michael Kinsley, former editor of Harper's and writer of the New Republic's venerable "TRB" column, would a few years ago have been known only by his pen. But now you can see him most afternoons on "Crossfire," opposite former Nixon and Reagan speechwriter Pat Buchanan. He and Buchanan yell back and forth, badger guests, and generally maintain an atmosphere that compares to that of "Washington Week in Review" or the Sunday morning interview shows roughl
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Approximate Word count = 3111
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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