A peek behind the tent flap

Last week came an interesting announcement about a long-lived, fondly-remembered institution which had simply outgrown its place in our society: after nearly 150 years, Ringling Brothers was shutting down its circus operations. It was the end of an era, with many saying its demise was long overdue. 

Okay, but just as Alexander Graham Bell is credited as saying, “when one door closes, another one opens,” when one circus departs, there’s often a new band of hucksters coming to town. 

In the past 14 days, we’ve had two media circuses take-up residence in the public discourse. The first and most frightening, comes from the mental acrobatics of White House press secretary Sean Spicer and Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, twisting and contorting facts and accuracy, and adding their own spin to President Trump’s January 20th Inauguration. Who will forget Spicer’s slight of hand concerning television viewing numbers and claims that photos of the Washington Mall comparing Trump’s attendees to those of Obama’s were “staged” or inaccurate? And then of course, there’s Conway’s defence of Spicer’s “alternative facts” to NBC’s Chuck Todd.

Based solely on these two monumental testaments to stupid and immature, it’s a bit of an understatement to say the media are facing a challenge here in North America. 

But could it be an opportunity?

Is it possible that the media can learn from the Trump administration’s portrayal of their ranks as “dishonest” and “fake”, and then right the ship and rebuild their reputations? 

Of course it’s possible. However, the problem rests solely with the media, for it was they -as an industry -that decided roughly 30 years ago to forgo accuracy, balance and integrity -in news reporting and its presentation -and become -for all intents and purposes, a wind sock, primping and preferring money over facts. The onus is squarely on the shoulders of editors, news anchors, reporters and publishers to re-establish a mandate to inform the public. It was good enough for Murrow and Cronkite, Nash and Kirk before them; they should make the conscious decision to change for the better now. 

That leads to the second circus, afforded by Canada’s newspaper industry, which recently asked for taxpayer funding to keep its faltering ranks in business. It’s a nice idea, but so is handing out money to writers who can’t make a living on their skills or pen books or poetry that no one wants to read.

Besides, it’s not enough to catch individuals such as Conway or Spicer in a lie today, mostly because they can probably catch anyone else in the media in a lie from yesterday or the day before. If you point a finger at someone or call them out for their behaviour or lack of professionalism, you’d better check your own past performance lest you find 10 fingers pointing back at you. 

That’s the problem with the current-day mainstream media. As Will McEvoy, the anchor on “The Newsroom” told his audience, “The reason (the media) failed isn’t a mystery; we took a dive for the ratings.” I’ll take it one step further: the media fiddled while Rome burned, and all they said was, “Hey, this is one great weenie roast!” -and then to their videographer or producer they yelled, “Tell me you got that!”

It was hilarious that media outlets attacked Aaron Sorkin for “The Newsroom”, labelling it “idealistic” or unfair in its depiction of the media.

Hey muffin, life’s tough . . . wear a helmet!

If you don’t like your reflection in the mirror, don’t blame the mirror. Ugly truth might be hard to accept, so either change what the mirror reflects or like a vampire, get out of the castle! Stop citing inane events as the lead story in your newscasts -like the arrival of pandas at the Toronto Metro Zoo (okay, it was actually the third or forth segment one night on CTV2 London) or the travails of Kate, the Princess of Cambridge, and her morning sickness. 

Next thing you know, we’ll be getting up-to-the-minute live reports from CBC Newsworld about a cat up a tree in Ecum Secum, Nova Scotia. 

“That’s not news, but that too is reality,” chimed Peter Truman, on a nightly basis back when Global News was watchable.

The inconvenient truth of the media is that you in the media are responsible for this “crossroads” in your industry. First you traded dull facts for the bright-and-shiny appeal of simple-mindedness. You dumbed things down on a huge scale, either because you emulated a simple-is-best (and the quickest path to riches) approach made famous by the likes of Geraldo and Maury Povich. Or because the paltry return on investment from advertising within the media meant ever-tightening revenues and a “least-cost, lesser-intelligence” obedience to budgetary limitations. 

In other words, you opted for the cheapest, least-capable route in delivering your steaming piles of info-tainment. It was a default approach in the hopes of happier times to come. Yet they haven’t arrived, have they? With the advent of the internet, executives within the newspaper chain stamped their feet and whined like babies with a full diaper, blaming the cost of newsprint for causing the migration of advertisers to online portals. 

The fact is, you were the ones who miscalculated the impact the internet would have on news viewing and information gathering habits. Like modern-day movie makers, you’ve conveniently forgotten that it’s always people who make the heart of the stories, whether they’re the subject or the deliverer. It’s not about ratings or getting video of someone crying that’s the key. The first pillar of news is informing the public, plain and simple, and that if you employ integrity in the process, you’ll get the ratings and earn the revenues to keep the right people delivering a product that the masses actually want. And while you’re at it, you’ll help raise the collective consciousness -and maybe the intellect -of those who read, view and listen to it. 

Again, citing the wisdom of Will McEvoy: 

“We will be the champion of facts and the mortal enemy of innuendo, speculation, hyperbole and nonsense. We’re not waiters in a restaurant serving you the stories you asked for just the way you like them prepared.”

That’s the way it should be! And it’s not idealistic -it’s not pap or false sentimentality. That’s reality! News isn’t flashy, it isn’t sexy. It’s fact blended with a modicum of intellect -which is why newscasts routinely fail (so miserably) in the current media landscape.

Those in the media must choose the path they’re going to tread. They can straighten up and fly right -and rededicate themselves to accuracy, balance and integrity -and in doing so -recapture the hearts and minds of the general public. And no illusions here folks -that’s a mountain to climb that makes Everest look like a manure pile. Or they can lower themselves into the same festering pools of deceit and conceit that people like Spicer and Conway, or Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity -and other dimmer shiny objects represent.

Just as the biblical sentiment says, you cannot serve God and mammon at the same time, a news agency, publication, network or people in their employ cannot provide relevant and accurate news information and analysis while playing down to the lowest economic or intellectual denominator. 

You can’t be a sage and a whore at the same time.