Moyers vs. Murdoch: Journalism vs. Megalomania

Rupert Murdoch's favorite megalomaniac Bill O'Reilly sent a crew to Minneapolis this weekend to stalk journalists Bill Moyers and Dan Rather. This probably doesn't surprise you. And that's exactly why Moyers and Rather were in Minneapolis. They were speaking at the National Conference for Media Reform, a gathering of 3,500 people aimed at finding ways to get better journalism to the American people.

How dare they! So Fox decided to crash the party; smear as angry radicals thousands of good people who took three days out of their lives to help improve our democracy; and play games with Moyers and Rather -- two actual journalists who understand the crisis in their craft.

That's right. Fox News sent grown men with cameras to lurk behind doorways, hide in alcoves, and crouch in the bushes at night (literally) waiting to surprise two reporters in their seventies with angry questions and a boom mic.

You can see this pathetic ambush -- and Moyers classy response -- here on Olbermann. But the attack-dog tactics are already backfiring on Bill O. because they illustrate so clearly what so many of us already know: The corporate media system is broken, and it's hurting our democracy.

The O'Reilly ambush is typical cable news entertainment-posing-as-journalism whose purpose is to sell eyeballs to advertisers, not to inform citizens or better society. Add in a good dose of shouting, name-calling, head-shaking, and spurious guilt-by-association invective... and voila! Ratings points.

The standard model for cable news has become ridiculous. The facts are selected to fit a hysterical narrative that arguably makes for good TV but bears no resemblance to actual journalism. It breaks every common sense convention of the profession.

Rule No. 1 of journalism is that you don't write a story about something you do not understand or witness yourself. None of the three talking heads in Monday night's O'Reilly segment were at the conference they were trashing. The organizers of the event were not called or interviewed. The facts were not checked. They just don't care about that stuff.

Is this what journalism has become? Really? This great country deserves better.

The conference that Moyers, Rather, Arianna Huffington and others addressed was about the failure of corporate media to inform and reflect our communities and our democracy. It is about consolidated TV, radio and newspapers turning the news into sound bites, trivializing critical issues like elections and war, and failing to hold power accountable.

It is a free speech movement at its core, calling for a stronger democracy. We want more channels and more opportunities for voices and views of all kinds.

Some of us may be angry about what the media -- including Fox -- say and do, but I would defend Bill O'Reilly's right to speak his mind and entertain his audience however he chooses. I would defend his right just as firmly when he agrees with me as when he uses his show to launch angry attacks on what my community says and believes.

By the same token, every American that believes in the Bill of Rights should demand that O'Reilly respect our right to speak and be angry as well. There is more than a little irony in watching him angrily criticize people for angrily criticizing him. What's good for the goose is apparently treason for the gander.

So what are people so angry with the media about? They are angry about many things they perceive as injustices. But let's take just one -- the war in Iraq. It is now clear that we are fighting a war that was started and waged on false presences. No matter how you feel about the war today, the nature of its origins is hard to dispute. It is a war that was sold to the American people with a coordinated political campaign -- using the mainstream media as its outlet.

This is not the view of a radical fringe of left-wing political activists. This is the premise of an expose written by the White House press secretary whose job it was to execute the propaganda campaign. This is the inescapable conclusion of the New York Times story exposing the Pentagon's years-long secret program to shepherd retired generals with administration talking points to better than 4,500 news interviews.

And this is the self-indicting opinion of Dan Rather, America's most famous anchorman in the Tiffany network's No. 1 chair at the start of the Iraq war. That's actually what Dan Rather said in his speech at the conference: "These [media conglomerates] are entities that, as publicly held and traded corporations, have as their overall, reigning mandate, [the need] to provide a return on shareholder value. ... In the current model of corporate news ownership, the incentive to produce good and valuable news is simply not there. "

He laid down a critique that was directed just as much at himself and CBS as it was at Fox or any other media outlet. Let's also recall that it was the New York Times that has the most famous examples of complicity in botching this story. This is a very serious matter of historic importance by any reasonable standard.

So. Yes, Mr. O'Reilly. You can find people who are angry in America and not afraid to say so. Lots of them -- on the left, right, and center of the political spectrum. Tens of millions of Americans are angry at the costs of war in lives and treasure. Tens of millions more are angry about how the media has handled the global warming debate, tax cuts for the wealthy -- and the list goes on. Calling them "lunatics" and "fascists" and "fringe" would be offensive if it were not too silly to warrant a retort.

It is the perfect embodiment of what is wrong with the media today that one of its most visible talk-show entertainers puts his own self-righteousness above the plain facts in the news. Rather than helping guide and inform the American people in difficult times, Bill O'Reilly has made himself more important than the news. By personalizing everything, he turns the media into a megaphone for his own megalomania instead of helping people understand why their country is in trouble and what we can do about it.

The people in Minneapolis weren't asking to silence Bill O'Reilly. They were -- and are -- asking for something more than Bill O'Reilly. They are asking for journalism -- a craft the founders saw fit to put in the Constitution. That aspiration stands squarely in the best tradition of American freedom.

Ben Scott contributed to this post.

 

Follow Josh Silver on Twitter: www.twitter.com/freepress

Comments

[grandpaw]

This is not the first time in my life that I have been ashamed of the American people. Nor is it the first time that the purveyors of "car wreck" pseudo-journalism have led so many people around by their noses, doing what they need to do to draw a crowd. Thank goodness for CSPAN, and a good deal less for PBS.

[noneIn2008]

TV journalism died a long time ago. I can not imagine calling any TV program journalism, even from the big 3. They are all hawking autos and Viagra.

[shystar]

Great post, if any democracy is to survive an independent media is essential. They serve as the watch dogs for the people. To question, probe, and be critical of how a government governs. This role was compremised during the build up to the Iraq War and it is only through self examination and reflection as it was in the business of doing, that the media is strengthen.

There will always be the Bill Os to scream at the audiance and talk lots of B.S. but as the society evolves the Bill Os will become redundent.

[drexel]

Excellent article. Problem is, people like O'Reilly aren't interested in media working to inform the people. If the news media was actually about telling people important, meaningful information, he would be out of a job.

[booksnmore4you]

Bingo.

[verhaftik]

Excellent post, Josh. Well written and informative. It is refreshing to hear of Mr. Rather's acknowledgments, be they sincere or otherwise. A skilled news network can provide a well rounded product to their audience while also procuring sponsors. It takes programming that really captivates people beyond infotainment.

People soon tire of trash. But, they become enmeshed in knowledge. Just go to Europe and see the people in constant chatter in outdoor cafes, about this issue or that. Let's hope sponsors and news networks alike permit young minds like yours to flourish. The time is now. It could be a win-win for everyone.

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

I would like to think so, but I think this corporate media has gotten used to its power and they will do anything they can to prevent their infantile consumers growing up and having critical, adult discussions like Europeans.

[mav4499237]

It sure would be nice to have a cable channel that just reports the news. I'm a big boy and can form my own opinions. I don't need to hear anyone's opinions or rants. I used to like Olberman when he stuck to reporting the facts about this current administration. That all changed when I saw the hatchet job he has done on Hillary Clinton. In interview after interview, he would attempt to lead the person being interviewed to embrace his slant. It was such an example of "O'Reilly style of "journalism" that it became sickening. I am amazed at how he and several others could twist Clinton's concession speech into a spectacle that made her look so bad. Because she had the guts to fight until the end, she was castigated by KO and Mathews. I'm not a phony who only believes the Fox boys should be reprimanded and boycotted for what they call journalism. Olberman and cronies do the same, just for a different viewpoint. Keith had the same problem when he was on ESPN and it became more about him and not the story. What a shame to waste so much talent with such overblown egos. And by the way, I'm not a Hillary supporter, Obama's my candidate.

[luziannagirl]

Reprimanded? Oh, no, that's not nearly enough.

How about substantially fined, like, seizing two or three or more years worth of corporate income? And then force the corporate vampires into bankruptcy and shut them down.

Fox's (and MSNBC and CBS and CNN and....) ill-gotten gains could be used to start and fund a new media watchdog entity, a la police seizure of drug money & assets.

And only after their money has been confiscated should the bastards be sentenced to start supporting the public good by picking up litter on the roadsides and work scooping dog poop out of the local animal shelter...because that's probably about all they are good for.

After all, we've seen what kind of journalists they are.

[SkimaskBob]

great post.

[Economike]

Billy Moyers rules. His series on Joseph Campbell changed my life.

[RoloTomassi]

I really enjoyed that series, and Campbell's take on the Tibetan Book of the Dead was amazing.

[luziannagirl]

Fox, like any mainstream media network, lives on advertising revenue. Money is not their bottom line. It's their only line.

Register your displeasure where they live. Boycott Fox advertisers.

[Stoyver]

A list of advertisers would be helpful. I never watch Fox or any other corporate marketing-dressed-up-as-news programming so I don't know who buys adspace from Rupert, GE, Disney and others.

[Bocababs]

I saw the Bill Moyers event last night on K.O. I was thrilled to my heart over the way Mr. Moyers handled it. I have been whining to anyone with a place to type these kinds of comments about the Corporate Owned Media since way before the 2004 Election. I would hope that this year is different, that this time, the people are smarter and in that regard, sick of being led by daily Right Wing Talking Points.

[memphispaul]

Josh,
It's great that I can finally read your byline!

[SnapShots]

Thanks for all you do, Josh.

Furthermore, let'sboycott O'Reilly's advertisers. Hit him where it hurts.

For a complete list of June 9 O'Reilly Factor advertisers and their contact information, click on the link below. Call and/or email his advertisers and tell them you will not buy their products as long as they advertise on the O'Reilly Factor.

Spread this call for boycott and the below link throughout the blogosphere. There's power in numbers. Losing advertisers is O'Reilly's biggest fear. Without advertisers, he's history.

http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/sponsor-boycott-list.htm

[pisces666]

Thanks for the info, Snap. I agree completely. I've already sent out a couple of emails! Power to the people!

[3reddogs]

When I was in my 20's I sometimes squirmed at the tone and content of questions hurled at Richard Nixon by the White House press corps. Now questions aren't hurled, they're lobbed and the tone is respectful when outrage is required. Our founding fathers always imagined that the press would play an adversarial role when it came to government ... they aren't just turning in their graves, they're positively spinning.

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

I caught some of the great speeches given at the Media Reform conference.

They were, without exception, outstanding. Prof. Lessig made some strong points about the lobbyists hijacking of power.

Keep up the good fight Mr. Silver.

[DickTater]

I see a nice swing in how many people have pulled the blinders off. I see a lot of people waking up from the dream-miasma that the corporate media weaves.

Remember, they are multinational corporations. Their main clients are multinational corporate advertisers, and the biggest heaviest-hitters of american corporations.
Even above ratings and money, their big goal is to keep their iron-grip on the broadcasting. They are broadcasting lies and propaganda, 24/7. They are hiding the corporate malfeasance which has laid waste to our country. The last thing they want is anybody telling the truth, and they sure don't want anybody else getting airwave time and stealing their monopoly. If they are the only ones telling us stuff....then their truth becomes OUR truth.

The Big Tell....the prime indicator....is that they will not cover their own malfeasance. Silence. The news people are actively strangling news stories, esp. ones about them advancing corporate agendas, war, and defense spending issues. Nice conundrum.