C-SPAN2 9:00 - Tom Fenton "Bad News - the decline of reporting"

[Tactical Progressive]

He's a recently retired CBS reporter who has just written a book on the media, being interviewed by Roger Mudd.

Could be interesting, for those of us amazed at how American political journalism has come to be in such a state of perpetual failure. Or maybe not, but it should be at least an insider's view of the extent to which they recognize the problem.

[Eloriel]

1. Thanks much!

I'd have missed it were it not for you.

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. I watched it earlier (at 6)

it is very interesting

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. notes from the interview...

Host Roger Mudd
Tom Fenton - former CBS correspondent author of "Bad News"

Waited until he retired so he could print the truth.

Media downfall began around the time the Berlin Wall fell.

Networks turned their backs on the world, closed foreign bureaus and got rid of Foreign reporters.

<freaky static and technical difficulties 4 min. in had me grabbing for my headgear. Who is trying to make sure this doesn't get heard? LOL>

Corporate Media (our term) does not cover the world anymore.
CBS has 0 reporters permanently based in Muslim world.
CBS, NBC, and ABC each have 1 reporter based in Asia.

We have dumbed the public down (his words), they have no idea what is really going on.

There is a hunger out there for real news, but the evening news now has 13 min of headlines (average 1.45 minutes each) and the last half is infotainment - diets, celebrities etc.

Breaking points were
1. the end of communism "world is safe now, no need for foreign news)
2. FCC being lobbied by the networks

News used to be a basic public service

Anchors now lack International background and experiences.

We need to restore credibility

In the absence of real reporting, spin proliferates.

Mudd said - Whole TV experience seems to be aimed at dumbing down of America.

Fenton had several stories scrapped - could have had an interview w/ Bin Laden - NY office said no, didn't think the $ they had to spend would be worth it.

Saddam used gas against the Kurds - editor wanted him to take the word "Kurds" out of the article because "no-one knows who the Kurds are".

Media is gun shy because of Vietnam
1st Gulf War - Media was locked out
Persian Gulf War - CNN 24/7 coverage
Iraq - so dangerous the reporters can't really cover it. Journalist are targeted for kidnappings because insurgents know governments will pay ransoms to get them back.

needs to be a dedicated effort to get Media back on track
Walter Cronkite's idea is to Shame them into improving.

You can help, write your local stations, lobby the FCC.

Bloggers should focus on the networks, not Rather and Eason.

SCHEDULED TO BE ON DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART MONDAY

Wrote the book because he's mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore!
Public is in a vacuum
Media has done a disservice to the ones they are there to serve.

*********

Todays CSPAN thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=320&topic_id=4

[KoKo]

4. Thanks so much for Recap of this...I missed it..but it sounds good!

[Tactical Progressive]

5. That was a really good paraphrase transcript.

Thanks!

[roguevalley]

6. Tom Fenton is old school. He's a very good reporter.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

7. kick

[papau]

8. A partial truth guy - used RW Regan publishing and Fox News to dump

on CBS.

Some truth to what he says - but spun so as to NOT look at the real problem of RW control of all US mainstream media, as Fox and GOP try to bury CBS.

[Tactical Progressive]

9. OK, I watched the show.

It was kind of what I expected, but not what I'd hoped for.

Tom Fenton was a nice-guy CBS reporter stationed in London. His problem with the media is focused on the foreign correspondence area he worked in. Basically he is bemoaning the lack of foreign coverage in US news, and repeated a couple of times how it's not just TV news, but the New York Times and Washington Post too. Compared to European world awareness, American news viewer are in his words 'in a vacuum'. Which we already knew. America has always been an insular nation.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, and even moreso after the fall of Russian communism, American news bureaus shut down foreign offices due to 1) lack of consumer interest and 2) the desire not to spend money gathering overseas news. He tells how they wouldn't put up the money to have him interview bin Laden because people wouldn't be interested, obviously before 9/11. Even though his beat was Europe, he thinks the lack of presence in the Middle East is the biggest problem right now. Currently there is no presence there, in addition to almost none in Asia and very little in Europe any more. It's all second-hand sourced news passed on by the networks.

I'm sure that his concerns are something that should be addressed. However, he didn't say anything about the media's lack of interest in the domestic plight of Americans - debt, healthcare, etc. Nor does he take issue with how the news media has become a bunch of pandering whores for corporate interests. Nor how politically terrorized they are by the right-wing's eternal anger. Just the lack of foreign correspondence. That's a peripheral issue to me, but not unexpected from him given his pedigree. 'Bad News' is too broad a title for what he appears to be concerned with. There is alot more wrong with the news than the lack of foreign offices. The title is essentially a sensationalized description of his parochial concerns.

He doesn't really get much of what we see wrong. In fact he talks about how the media may have been too quick to dismiss Bush's big ideas for democratizing the Middle East - the new standard media meme - as if there were any good intentions there until after-the-fact justifications were needed. I really didn't see much awareness of the kinds of things we are furious about with the media.

He's going to be on Jon Stewart tomorrow, which he calls 'ersatz news' in response to Roger Mudd's chiding. I like that description. He knows that alot more people will see him there than on C-SPAN.

[Doctor_J]

10. This will ultimately be our demise

our ignorance compared to the rest of the world. There will be a special place in hell for Limpballs and all of his wannabes who plunged the US into the Dark Ages Redux.