PressEthic

Writing books criticizing the Bush administration's approaches to Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and 9/11 seems to be what journalists are doing these days to keep busy, as if deadlines aren't enough. While Bob Woodward's book was number one on the AP's list of USA Today's top sellers, New York Times reporter Frank Rich's new book, "The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina" was number 48. Hopefully, Rich's appearance on Oprah yesterday will boost sales. If not, it certainly made for an interesting conversation about media and the Bush administration.

A huge aspect of Rich's book is a claim that he makes about the government hiring journalists to produce "fake" news to the public about things going on in the administration. Oprah reads a portion of his book out loud:

"The administration's propaganda machinery encompassed not just the usual government flacks disseminating misleading information but also a hidden and elaborate fake news factory, complete with its own fake journalists, all of it paid for by taxpayers."

The description of this Oprah show in the TV listings was "The truth behind major news stories." When I saw this, I was not expecting the show to be all about Rich's book, but I was expecting the show to take a look at media bias in the coverage of Iraq and other things. The show itself was called "Truth in America," and I think this is a pretty bold move to attribute this title, especially considering some of things Rich says. I think it's impossible to prove that anything he said was hard fact. The show was more an opinion panel than anything else. It's open for discussion.

In addition, the topic of bias in mainstream outlets, such as Rich's own New York Times, was not brought up. You cannot have a conversation about truth in news stories without taking a look at bias in such news outlets. While his claims about the administration's fake news may be true, he should address other types of "fakeness" in the news, which his own publication may be contributing to.

Another thing Rich talks about in the interview is the flaw in the administration in reaction to Hurricane Katrina:

When the devastation of Katrina happened, Americans saw with their own eyes, suffering fellow Americans begging for help, begging for rescue, and they saw officials, the department of homeland security and elsewhere saying "it's all fine" or "we don't even know about it."

Rich goes onto say that Katrina coverage on TV was actually quite truthful to the suffering of people. The government, however, was not recognizing that suffering and was denying it to the media. Isn't this a good thing? The media was not just taking the government at its word but was going down to New Orleans and getting the truth on their own. Did it matter to the American people what the government said as long as they saw these images? I think Rich did not give the media enough credit in this instance for doing their jobs as government watchdogs. Although, I did not read his book.