PressEthic

This morning, Frazier Moore of the AP reviewed (via Editor and Publisher) John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney's new book, Tragedy & Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections and Destroy Democracy.

It's a mouth-full, isn't it? Beyond being a long title, it's certainly one that will make many a journalist bristle. Destroying Democracy? That seems harsh. The book (so it seems, I've only read the review as of yet) isn't actually rough on journalists:

The media crisis is not due to incompetent or corrupt journalists or owners, but rather to a highly concentrated profit-driven media system that makes it rational to gut journalism and irrational to provide the content a free society so desperately requires.

What caught my eye in this review was this, though (from the book):

Let's be careful about saying 'Oh, it's right-wing media' or 'It's left-wing media,'" Nichols cautions. "This media system creates results in and of itself, which tend to favor the desire of the status quo, of those in power, and tend to undermine the ability of dissenters to be heard -- whether they're on the left or the right.

We all know there's something afoul in media today. Celebrity journalism is where the money is, and newspapers are letting go more reporters every day (while retaining a profit...hmmm); maybe we should start looking somewhere new for the real problem.

It's not incredibly hard to find bias in reporting, and from my experience, it's insanely easy to find conservative bias. Maybe that's not the problem though. I'm interested to see someone dig a little deeper, and I look forward to reading Nichols and McChesney's book. (Even if it does seem a little revolutionary for my taste.)