Do media critics focus a disproportionate amount of energy on the print medium? According to Brian Montopoli of CBS' Public Eye, yes, critics agonize over the smallest of details whenever a print journalist commits a ethical lapse (see Judith Miller and 90% of the posts on this blog), yet either don't notice or don't care enough to criticize television.
Montopoli makes a strong case. In a country where television dominates its people's news consumption, why wouldn't television receive the lion's share of criticism? It's certainly not because TV journalists are somehow beyond reproach; if anything, they're even more unscrupulous and ethically-challenged than print journalists. But why, Montopoli asks, did Andrew Heyward -- CBS's former head of news -- get barely a few paragraphs devoted to him when books, magazines, and countless articles were written about Howell Raines?
I, like most of us on this blog, am guilty of it, too. In my brief career as an amateur media critic this semester, I've focused three-fourths of my posts on either print or the web, my main area of interest. In my defense, I view TV news as beyond saving, so grotesque and ridiculous to even warrant criticism. But wouldn't TV journalism be better suited if it received more attention from media critics like ourselves? While it's natural for journalists to write about what they themselves are interested in, it's a whole lot more important to reflect the community in which we live. As such, I have to agree with Montopoli's suggestion: "Yo, critic, time to pick up the remote?"
willemmarx @ November 18, 2005 - 5:47pm
Could it be that those who watch TV news as a demographic are not closely aligned with those that post criticism on the net? Just a thought, but the media critics Montopoli describes may be people like yourself who have no interest in TV news, think it "grotesque and ridiculous," and so do not watch it, let alone consider it worthy of criticism...
Perhaps those people who get their news primarily from TV, and these are necessarily generalisations which I am merely proposing as possibilities, are not those that care enough about the news to spend their time criticising it on the net, or are even (have to be careful here!) not sufficiently alive to, or aware of possible flaws in broadcast news that they feel they are in a position to criticise it.
My excuse: I don't have a TV in my apartment. I wouldn't study early or late if I did.
»