Seeker Blog

Cori Dauber likes Tom Fenton’s new book Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger To Us All

Today Cori linked to this Columbia Journalism Review interview with Fenton. Like Cori I don’t understand his positive outlook on NPR - otherwise it is an interesting insider’s perspective:

A correspondent for CBS News from 1966 until 2004, Fenton covered nearly every major European and Middle Eastern story of the past 38 years. He is the recipient of four Emmy Awards, a Dupont Award, a Weintal Award, and numerous overseas press awards.

Brian Montopoli: In your book, you write that "reality has never been so slippery, so seemingly impossible to nail down." Why?

Tom Fenton: I think that the basic problem is the dilution of actual reporting. Spin and bias proliferate in a news vacuum. In spite of the fact that there seem to be many more outlets for so-called news, I don’t think the sum total of actual on-the-ground, first-hand reporting, especially investigative reporting, has increased. In fact, you can make the argument that it has decreased — it certainly has in international newsgathering. There are far fewer reporters on the ground, far fewer eyes and ears, than there were ten or fifteen years ago.

…

BM: Is the solution to get the FCC to reverse itself?

TF: Well, I think that’s pie in the sky. It would be wonderful if they would. Somehow, the mainstream media have to be shamed into going back to performing their prime function. In the book, I use the analogy — it’s not a perfect analogy — of how far Detroit fell in the ’60s and ’70s when they were turning out inferior cars. We’re turning out inferior news. And somebody needs to stand up and say, "That’s enough. Stop dumbing down the news."