by Ralph Lawrence

Created on: May 28, 2008

MODERN JOURNALISM ROBED IN YELLOW AND GREEN

Political bias runs rampant in the media today. As powerful forces are marshaled for a perpetual drive to boost circulation, increase viewing or listening audiences, very often ethics lose to greed or nihilistic practices. Just at the turn of the twentieth century, noted publisher William Randolph Hearst used the imminent outbreak of the Spanish-American War to fashion a crisis. "You furnish the pictures," he told a photographer. "I'll furnish the war." Thus began yellow journalism.

In order to influence popular opinion, news people created prejudiced articles, commentary and analysis to fuel the propaganda campaign. The more sensational, the more the public was swayed. Editorials, news reports and most prominently, lurid pictures reminded the American people that the media's power often became the ultimate judge and jury. This scenario is repeated even to this day. All the ingredients are present. Consider Abu Ghraib, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, illegal immigration and WMDs to name a few. We are bombarded with strident, near-hysterical stories insisting that immediate investigations begin, while inflammatory photos, eyewitness accounts and "expert testimony" accentuate the failings of the political process in general and one particular party and its elected officials specifically.

What seems to be lacking in the process is professional attitude and pride. A total deficiency of background information, analysis based on fact, not supposition, distort and mislead America for the sole purpose of advancing a particular agenda. What happened to an honest exhibition of perspective and proportion? The modern print media displays, at best, catchy headlines, humorous political cartoons and special interest accounts. At worst, blaring tabloid-style lead stories, personal attacks and scathing editorials. Our televisions carry biased opinions that masquerade as objective fact. Consider the intrusive, investigative reporting that we see each day. Some directed at "personalities," others at elected officials and their families whose lives are scrutinized in a most inhumane fashion.

Another budding monster is the debate on the "greening of the planet Earth" and the global warming issue. There are many facets to this debate. Scientists are at odds on the data, but we, as U.S. citizens, seem to be bearing much blame for the conditions, real or imagined. Watch the media attack those individuals involved in the political and scientific world if they are even remotely lukewarm to the idea that we might be facing a "clear and present danger" to our ecological existence. The unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company or industry group, or "greenwashing" as it is called, is a new purported danger for the media to politicize. Is it political fact or scientific theory? Most folks cannot make a decision based on just what we are spoon fed by the media.

There are many other subjects that the media has chosen to use its considerable clout to influence its audience. The questions remain: Fabrication versus fact? Ethical writing versus yellow or green journalism? America deserves to exit this dark age of reporting and emerge into the light of honest, unbiased ethical media.

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