What were you thinking?
I posted a comment in Facebook recently and was instantly barbecued, flamed, tarred and feathered and run out of town. After a 60-Minute interview that went bad, I merely pointed out that the person couldn’t answer the questions because the interviewer kept interrupting and hijacking the answers if they didn’t follow 60-Minutes current talking points. I said there’s never a good excuse for bad manners, no matter how bad the guest is. People seem to think the Trump “fake news” era is something new — but it’s not. The media and its hidden agendas have manipulated people for decades.
You the Media
In the days following the 2004 presidential elections the media, radio, TV, newspapers and magazines were humming and buzzing over why John Kerry lost. They found all kinds of places to put the blame, except themselves. And, of course, a large percentage of the population will believe the nightly news. Just like the media wanted them to in the days before the election. But the media seriously underestimated the power of suggestion.
From a designer’s perspective, bad journalism had shown itself in the main stream media like never before. Designers know that mind-space is bought through association. Associate your brand with something GOOD and the consumer begins to believe the brand is good. Continue to associate your brand with something bad, and eventually, consumers will turn away. Thus the story of John Kerry and the media.
As I watched the media in those months and weeks before the election I couldn’t believe I was seeing such an obvious lack of professionalism. The main-stream media seemed to grab at any shred of controversy as the lead story. Then the others would fall in step picking up the same story. Then they all would run it again, and again. It was a battle between the media giants; who could release the worst news of the day.
All throughout the Iraq conflict, the media continues to take great relish in the body counts — four today; three yesterday, as if there could be a war with no casualties. They dig into the private lives of the families so they’ll actually have something to report. So far — in the entire conflict — there haven’t been as many deaths as the first hour of the war that, once upon a time, took down another evil dictator.
When the Iraq prison scandal hit the media pounded away at it; showing the photos again and again until the public was sick. One night, the ABC evening news I counted the prison photos displayed full screen eighteen (18) times in twenty minutes. Then for several days they continued to run the story showing the same rude photos.
The “Fast Boat” scandal and Moore’s “911” became ongoing staples in all the networks. But the big debacle was the CBS 60-Minutes airing of the “Bush Papers” — giving grave concern for the credibility of the Bush campaign because of the questionable authenticity of the documents. I was called in as an ‘expert witness’ to identify the type in the papers. I exhibited two sections where a “new” type was used that wasn’t invented in that era. I knew the papers were false. I knew that the 60-Minutes piece was based on false documents. Radio talk shows like Hanady and Regan were really the only ones to approach the truth with level and calm journalism.
And throughout all of this, not a single glimpse of anything good. At least not that I can remember. People began to turn away from the main-stream media by the millions. Too much bad news.
If big-media journalists were designers, obligated to extract the truth and essence of the subject, and then associate it with their brand, the personality of the 2004 presidential campaign coverage would have been very different. Instead, the media grabbed every horrible story they could find to report on and wrapped it neatly around John Kerry’s campaign. The public came to subliminally associate Kerry with all the bad news — no matter what the announcer was saying. Thus, whether intentionally or not, the main-stream media convinced the minds of rational Americans that Bush was the only appropriate choice. The media had lost the election for Kerry.
We the Media
In his new book “We The Media” Dan Gillmor says:
We can’t afford more of the same. We can’t afford to treat the news solely as a commodity, largely controlled by big institutions. We can’t afford, as a society, to limit our choices. We can’t even afford it financially, because Wall Street’s demands on Big Media are dumbing down the product itself.
Grassroots journalism is taking the wind out of big media’s sails. The story is underscored by the “Bush Papers” scandal where astute online news reporters called industry experts, like myself, to analyze the authenticity of those condemning letters about George Bush supplied by a figure in Kerry’s campaign. All experts agreed there was grave cause for concern. But while the main-stream media was glossing over the issue, millions of bloggers, and online discussion groups were digging for the truth. There was indeed a voice. The people. Gillmor further notes:
“The Media will never be the same… for the first time, bloggers have been awarded press credentials to cover the national political conventions. That’s a harbinger of bigger changes in the media landscape — big media has lost its monopoly on the news thanks to the internet.”
YOU the Media
I know you’ll be watching the TV nightly news this evening. But this time, look a little deeper. Take the designer’s stance and ask questions about the essence of the story, the reporter’s demeanor and what is not being said. Then Google the headline. Find out that it’s old news, and perhaps not really the same news you’re getting from the talking heads of main-stream media.
[Reprinted from 60-Second Windows, October 30, 2004]
So, you see, fake news, media hype and public hysteria has been going on for a long time. Yes, maybe it was Trump who made it a household word, but now it is so much more complicated because the internet world of blogs, bots, trolls and their unrelenting pursuit of attention and money makes everything suspect!
Thanks for reading.
Editor/Publisher : DTG Magazine
+FredShowker on Google+ or most social medias @Showker
Published online since 1988
Also see :
- Dan Gillmor: The Future of Journalism
- We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People
- The Future of Journalism: Tom Rosenstiel at TEDxAtlanta
