Now that I’ve got your attention, let me deconstruct that statement for you and comment on Robert’s post below on freedom of the press.

Remember the old Paddy Chayefsky film “Network”? (I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.) The movie documents that period of time in the 1970s when broadcast network news changed irrevocably.

Prior to that, and going all the way back to the old radio days of broadcast journalism, the days of Murrow, Cronkite and Shirer, network news was a loss leader for the broadcast industry. The networks’ news departments competed for prestige, not for viewer eyeballs and advertising revenue. ABC, NBC and CBS were proud of their news departments, and lavished resources and talent on them. It was pro bono, a service to the community, a matter of pride and professional standing. Nothing like this remains today on the ether except for PBS and NPR.

Sometime in the 1970s, the advertising departments took hold of the news bureaus. Ratings became king. TV news was privatized, dumbed down and popularized, made more appealing to attract viewers. This is easiest to see in the local affiliates’ most profitable advertising market, the 6PM news hour. Sexy weather girls in cocktail dresses, Dudley Doright anchormen, used car salesmen sportscasters, flashy graphics and majestic music, an exaggerated emphasis on the local athletic teams, and barely disguised plugs for the Network’s prime time offerings–TV about TV. And the stories–violence, crime, sex, sensationalism, scandal, and pop culture. Everything to bring in those eyeballs, boost ratings. People were depressed or confused by complex news issues and they wanted uplifting, inspirational little vignettes about crips and retards and maimed vets beating the odds, little black kids saying “no” to drugs, all washed down with some cute pet and toddler footage just before the last commercial saturation bombing .

The affiliates led the way, but the networks started leaning that way too. This is what the film “Network” was all about: how the Marketing guys took over the newsroom. Watch it, its probably available on YouTube or on demand. Note particularly Ned Beatty’s speech to Peter Finch* where
all is revealed.
Its not just great comedy and social commentary, its media history.

But to be fair to the corporate goons, they were not interested in taking over the world. They weren’t pushing an ideology or a political program. They were just trying to make a buck. It was pure Capitalism, devoid of any other agenda. Politically neutral, eh? Maybe the Madison Avenue types had no ideological ambitions, but others did. There was Leo Strauss, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, money and media took over political campaigns, Trump got started in Real Estate and Reality TV; then came the internet and, as they say, the rest is history.

*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuBe93FMiJc