Broadcast Journalism Has Reached a New Low

We live in an age when the quality of news reporting by the mainstream television media has stooped to new lows. It is an era where instead of reporting a story, television media now make the story. It is an era where the media allows itself to be manipulated by those who wish to use it for their personal gain. And as a result, what ultimately happens is that we, as Americans, are less informed about the state of our world than we should be.

The manner in which the television media handled the death of entertainer Michael Jackson demonstrated that American television journalism has been brought to new lows. In the nearly two week period between the death of Jackson and his media-event memorial service, and even continuing after that, broadcast journalism allowed itself to be manipulated by the Jackson family to the exclusion of nearly every other newsworthy event which took place in our country during that same time period. CNN, for example, took the story to new lows by making it the focus of its evening and night-time news programming with nonstop coverage of every little development in the Jackson case. Major networks were not far behind. Nearly each of them featured Jackson or his death as the subject matter of their television news magazines. The culmination of all this media frenzy was the two-and-a-half hour memorial service which was broadcast live on all three networks, without interruption. In the history of American broadcast journalism, it is virtually unheard of to devote that type of coverage to a funeral or memorial service for anyone, with the exception of a U.S. President.

Michael Jackson was a private citizen, not a public figure. While it is a fact that Jackson may have been in the public eye for much of his life, it is also a fact that until recently, he had been living as an American expatriate in, of all places, Bahrain. Jackson only returned recently to this country and that was to enable him to prepare for a concert tour scheduled to take place in Britain, not the U.S. There was certainly nothing which Jackson had done during the last phase of his career to reinsert himself back into American public life, and even if he had, it certainly would not have warranted the kind of coverage which the broadcast media gave to him upon his death.

During the past two weeks many significant events took place in our world that were worthy of reporting. American soldiers continued to die in Iraq. Economic issues continued to plague our country. Thousands of Americans lost their jobs, their homes, and their health insurance coverage. Matters were continuing to develop in the Middle East, the President was promoting his health care reform bill, North Korea was rattling its nuclear sabers, just to name a few. We weren't told much about those events, and if we wanted to know about them, we had to make a concerted effort to find any information about them in the broadcast media. The information that we did get, consisted of nothing more than a few snippets here and there, nothing like the coverage that was given to the deceased Jackson. While some of us were concerned about matters affecting the environment, or the job market, we were instead fed a never ending diet of details about such irrelevant items as where Jackson's body may have been at any particular moment, or whether his funeral would take place at Neverland or another venue.

Broadcast journalistic standards met a new low in the past two weeks. Rather than reporting the news and educating Americans about issues that affect us today and into the future, the networks allowed themselves to be used by the Jackson family and concert promoter AEG to promote interest in Jackson. By releasing details of the potential funeral arrangements in bits and pieces, by sending out announcements that he may be interred here or there, that there may or may not be a memorial service, by preserving Jackson's body for what seemed to be an untoward period of time before burial, the family obtained unprecedented exposure, culminating in their ability to obtain uninterrupted network coverage of Jackson's memorial service broadcast around the world at no cost whatsoever.

This is not to say that the death of Jackson wasn't a newsworthy event, it certainly was. It is to say, that it did not warrant the amount of coverage it received, and it was not an event that should have consumed the majority of news coverage by the broadcast media for the past two weeks. By giving it that coverage, broadcast journalism in America has shown that rather than keeping the public informed about newsworthy events, it is willing to sensationalize whatever story will bring in the most viewers. Without even realizing it, those viewers have been hoodwinked. The news hasn't really been reported.

Comments

[wonkguy]

I have to disagree strongly with this column. I think there are plenty of other watershed moments that can be used to show the low levels to which American journalism has sunk (wmd anybody?) without picking at this old wound anymore.

I think there are a lot of people in this country who grew very uncomfortable and dissatisfied over the last 10 years with the way in which MJ was summarilly drummed off the stage by the media. I think people continued to look at his immense popularity overseas and couldn't reconcile that with image of him that had been painted by questionable journalists and talk show hosts who used his scandalous and querky lifestyle to promote their own careers.

It is totally appropriate that the broadcast and cable networks carried that service live and uninterrupted. First of all, it was pretty darn good entertainment. Secondly, they all made a fortune trying to tell the world how much of a freak they thought he was, it was fitting that the final image was of his daughter reminding the world that in the end, he was just a dad.

[Poboy]

Excellent comment.

[StoicRep]

The role of the press is to investigate - no wonder our society is in meltdown - no accountability, and the press is supposed to provide this function. It is not until children point out the obvious that the media respond.

The real Jackson is buried beneath a ton of PR myths, and promotions. Not to hard to see the truth. The real story is more interesting than the junk being publicly released.

[StoicRep]

This is just an example of what takes place every day. Every story is an ambulance chase. No one seems to do any investigative background checking anymore. Bloggers do a better job of looking things up. I am told to complain is to invoke the wrath of others.

[pfrogger]

The writer notes "it did not warrant the amount of coverage it received". And yet I would vehemently disagree and say that it DID warrant the amount of coverage it received from the entertainment TV/print MSM.
Has the writer been living in a different reality or just woke from a 20 year coma as to explain his ignorance. The entertainment media these days has only one priority - to make money!
In that regards, the ultimate vehicle to this end is entertainment. His standards for the modern day "news" networks is profoundly naive. The "news" no longer serves to educate or inform. It serves to make money by offering opinions. The I-feel reporting that lacks coherence, logic, and facts is what the "news" does. Facts and evidence are abandoned because it doesn't garner ratings and thus the ultimate goal of money. But entertainment sells. Hostilities and arguments of the left vs. the right sells. Special effects and the facade that is the current MSM sells.
Certainly these repudiations of modern "news" is beyond late. Only a great fool turns into modern "news" and expects relevant and factual information. The highly successful but fact-lite Fox News serves as a good example of this.
Please spare us the outraged shock at discovering the entertainment media is a joke. They have been for a long while and only a great fool takes them at their word. You don't want the opinionated fact-lite entertainment news, than it's time for fact checking.

[Nairb50]

Well said!! I agree. Anyone who relies on television news as their information source is an IDIOT!! I used to work in local news for close to 20 years. It's press-release reporting at its best. Very few operations do any real investigative reporting beyond stories like "Does the sneeze guard at your local buffet really keep your food safe?" or reports like "Who has the best cookies...Oreos, Hydrox, or generic?" Their afraid to do any real investigative reporting because it takes time and money...and, on top of that, news stations are afraid of getting someone angry and perhaps getting sued. Another problem has to do with the fact that the reporters in television news are getting younger and more stupid with no experience. Why? Because they are cheap...and no one is really watching anyway. Television news needs to be completely destroyed and reborn into something new and improved and more of a public service. LONG LIVE BLOGGERS AND THE INTERNET!!!

[FairyTinkerbell]

Apparently Mister Silberberg does not understand Broadcast Journalism. They follow the story that everyone wants to see. You as a viewer have a remote control and can change the channel.
Michael Jackson went out as a star does, a supernova so bright that all creatures around the earth pause to behold its brilliance! The outpouring of love from his fans only demonstrate that Mister Jackson was a world-class entertainer who taught everyone to dance. He was also a global humanitarian who did more for world hunger, the council of children, and human rights than YOU, a divorce attorney, could have ever imagined. Peter Pan was murdered by extortionists and greedy people that fed upon his flesh.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

Yet another article author who falsely claims that the MJ coverage prevented him from hearing about any other news story.


If I was able to keep up to date on other stories, then why couldn't you?

[jade7243]

Sorry, but this author like so many has jumped on the bash the media bandwagon for all the wrong reasons and at precisely the wrong time. And I am disturbed by the racially-tinged nature of the complaints. Is the unspoken complaint from Silberberg, "how dare they cover the life of a black 'song and dance' man?"

Contrary to Silberberg's statement, MJ was a public figure and a global one at that. To suggest that he be overlooked because he lived in various places around the world, suggests that Silberberg believes only "real Americans" (white?) deserve media coverage. To suggest that the media was wrong to cover his death as thoroughly, albeit obsessively as they did, ignores the preliminary fundamental inconvenient truth: the media covers that which pushes product (ratings, ad revenue, publicity) at the expense of what we highbrows call "news." It was that way in the days of William Randolf Hearst, and it's that way in the days of Rupert Murdoch.

It disingenuous that the complaints about the media covering Jackson, didn'tt reach this crescendo during the obsessive coverage of JonBenet Ramsey or any the other missing/murdered white girls/women the media serves up.

And what would they offer in exchange? They don'tt cover international, economic, diplomatic, scientific,, artisitic, to any degree. They didn'tt cover the run-up to war thoroughly or accurately.

Fine. Complain about the "stunningly superficial" nature of sound-bite driven news, but blame the real culprits and not the dead..

[montanason]

Referencing a perceived "unspoken complaint" may in itself be racially tinged .And I have failed to see in any of the posts or replies a single statement that stated the unfortunate death of MJ was not newsworthy, only that it took on a separate life. If I am wrong and there were in fact any then I suggest they be taken for what they are.
The issue I have with the coverage is the extent in which it became a media event where "celebrities", whose shelf life had already expired ,were dredged up as filler turning this somber occasion into a circus of conspiracy theories and outlandish statements that "Michael was murdered." I am indigenous and know a little about prejudice-to me this article isn't it ,and fifty years ago MJ's death would not have even made the front page. Which while a sad fact serves as well to illustrate a societal change gradual as it may be.
Rather than dredge up the past and play the race card lets recognize Mj for who he was and his career, acknowledging that he received a send off few do and that unfortunately it will be milked by both black and white for weeks to come. And this milking will be racially tinged by some and perhaps even profit driven by both sides.

[jade7243]

If Michael Jackson had died 50 years ago, he would have died as an unknown infant. So one part of your refutation fails.

But the point I make (and if you want to say I played the ":race card," I will take full credit for it) is that nearly without exception, everyone who has complained about the coverage -- including Silberberg, and numerous posters here at HuffPo -- have done so in manner regarding Jackson that they did not do when it was a white celebrity who died. On more than one occasion here and at other broadcast, print and online outlets I have seen/heard. read commentary with a decidedly racial undertone. In the world of "dog whistle" racism, you may not be equipped to hear it. But I and many other black folks have.

I find it odd that all of a sudden all of these people are so "concerned" about the sorry state of the news business. Yet I had not heard them complain with the same level of passion until now. They were not complaining when the dearth of news and solid reporting led to the unnecessary sacrifice 4500 Americans in Iraq. They were not complaining about the farcical coverage of the 2008 election.

But Michael Jackson's death gets their panties in a bunch? Yeah right...

[FredLA]

You make the leap that my point of view is racially biased with no basis for that. The only reason you concluded this was because the subject, Jackson, was African-American. I made no mention of race in my article, nor would I. There was no reason to do so. Race had nothing to do with this issue. Had similar coverage occurred in regard to a Caucasian individual, I would have said the same.

[AuntiepoppyCock]

"broadcast journalism allowed itself to be manipulated by the Jackson family to the exclusion of nearly every other newsworthy event which took place in our country during that same time period."

I hear you, but the Jackson family never has controlled the media. The media is aware of the market and they were aware of the fact that MJ was one of the greatest entertainers of his time... It's not about the dying soldiers, crumbling economy, missing children, and unemployment. It's about the DOLLAR and I don't think Keith Rupert Murdoch has made a dime reporting the decline of man unless he was a superstar entertainer Fred.

[Cakey4814]

The new low didn't come when MJ died; it has been sliding for the past 8 years when Bush and company were bankrupting the nation and (you included) were broadcasting on Britney Spears, etc. I can't believe you're blaming the Jackson family for the news coverage..you need to look at the "Man in the Mirror"

[Calyndula]

Who SAYS "The people wanted it." Certainly not THIS person. Yes, I was a fan of Michael Jackson, and yes, I feel bad about his death. I watched the Memorial Service, which belonged only on MTV or VH1, not every channel.

The hoopla surrounding the death made me sick. I was aiive for the JFK assassination. The nonstop coverage of that horrible event lasted four long days. Jackson is STILL going on. His death pushed Iran right out of the media's consciousness, not to mention, as the article states, North Korea, the U.S. economy, extreme heat and drought in the Southwest and other states, and lots more.

I felt captive to my TV. I could not find the news!!!

[Whatashame]

Michael Jackson or the Jackson's should not be blame for this. It just goes to show you that all the MSM are just like TABLOID magazine, there's no difference. Their are no qualify reporters or journalists on TV.

[montanason]

It has long been my contention that the differences between the "mainstream media" and the rags you might browse through while waiting in the checkout line are minimal at best. But to me there is an element of supply and demand to this. If the crap re "celebrities" failed to find an audience it would not be presented as cutting edge journalism. Another indication of this is apparently what the public views as important when you examine how "rumors" are reported as news and the then life they assume.
Media is driven by circulation and viewer percentages which translates to revenue, the impetus and altar they worship at-that being the case don't buy, don't watch.
A byproduct of this has been a thinly veiled viciousness and overt favoritism in the media that too often is reflective of the vitriol you find in various blog sites rather than an unbiased reporting. The standard was always who,what,when,where and how-not what someone wore or the bestowing of importance on a story or individual due to numbers or public fawning over them. Keep it in the society section and off the front page and on Beavis and Butthead.

[Opus Loki]

The media covered this story for one reason; the PEOPLE wanted it. Mr. Silberberg apparently missed that very important fact about journalism. "It's the Stroy Stupid"...
If the people want to see it you give it to them. It's not journalism reporting on what no one wants to hear. So while Mr. Silberberg missed his nightly fill of death ,destruction, decease, and poverty many many people mourned for what they felt was a great loss to THEM not YOU Mr. Silberberg. Rest at ease sir; people were still killing each other while we took a break from watching hate. The middle east were still using IEDs and soldiers and civilians alike in Afghanistan were still dying. Us regular non-jounalists didn't miss a thing. You could have just as easily turned off that TV and done something like, oh I don't know...BOUGHT A NEWSPAPER!!! Or how about that wonderful new invention called THE INTERNET!! There are other news worthy events that could have been put in place of your commentary but HP accomodated you because someone out there WANTED IT. Edward R. Morrow you certainly are not...

[Tena]

I've been saying this now for years, but given that the press is so important to our form of government that it merits the very first Amendment to the constitution, the present state of our media is actually dangerous and has been for years. Plus it's getting worse.

Even the online media is falling for the hype at every second - *sigh*

[JScott]

Not to mention the traffic disruption at Ventura and Hayvenhurst, the crowds at Neverland, Holmby Hills and of all places the LA Country Coroner for gosh sake!!!! I even rearranged my road trip travel plans because I thought I couldn't get a hotel reservaion in nearby Buellton I had to go to Lompoc.

Thanks ALOT corporate media.