Salty old reporters and editors like to quote the line that the mission of journalism is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." While that captures the spirit of a lot of great journalism, you can’t escape the irony that at this moment, the TV news media in America itself is looking quite afflicted and uncomfortable. Nor can you ignore that TV news organizations themselves have inflicted a lot of their wounds. Let's examine this wheezing patient and suggest some remedies for what ails him, because it’s more important than ever that he’s able to perform at his highest potential.
First, though, let’s be clear that the only thing this TV journalism guy has going for him in this day and age is his credibility. It’s his lifeblood, his beating heart, his essence. That’s because he no longer speaks with the "Voice of God" like Walter Cronkite once did. He’s no longer the only advertising game in town like local TV stations or newspapers were before the Internet. And he no longer attracts anywhere near the number of viewers or readers he did before hundreds of cable channels and websites diluted his audience and drove millions of younger eyeballs to mobile screens. All he’s got now is the value of his good name.
The first thing mainstream TV journalism needs to do is stop shooting itself in the foot. Because the last thing my industry can afford in these troubled times is a high-profile news anchor like NBC’s Brian Williams exaggerating what happened while he was reporting stories. Or ABC’s George Stephanopoulos giving money to organizations run by his former employer, Bill Clinton, while he reports on Hillary Clinton. Or Rolling Stone magazine publishing a spurious story on campus rape that it later retracted. These transgressions only serve to erode the public’s trust in the product that thousands of ethical journalists are working tirelessly to report, write, produce and sell: stories that bear witness and tell the truth.
The recent ethical lapses I mentioned are even more worrisome given that the public’s trust in the media was already languishing before NBC told Williams to stay home without pay for six months. Gallup says the percentage of people placing a "great deal" or a "fair" amount of trust in mass media fell to 40 percent in 2014, down from 55 percent in 1999. Even worse, faith in the media among 18-to-29 year olds – millennials — is a dismal 12 percent, according to a recent survey by the Harvard Institute of Politics. These numbers are a reminder that journalists can’t afford to take anything for granted. Many people don’t trust us and we have to do everything possible to retain the trust of the minority while doing our damnedest to convince the majority to give us another chance.
I’m hoping this latest crisis of confidence has the effect that a mild heart attack often has on a man in middle age: it forces him to take stock and re-evaluate the way he’s been living and take steps to make himself healthy again. Like eating better and exercising more. For TV journalists, the first step is to remember that verifying the facts is the single most important part of what we do. Don’t say it, report it or write it unless you’ve confirmed it. Question everything and everyone; especially your sources. That sounds obvious, but the failure to do it can jeopardize your reputation and sully the news organization that employs you. Just ask Lara Logan and CBS about Benghazi.
Ali Velshi
Host, Al Jazeera America
Restoring the TV journalist’s reputational health also requires a renewed commitment to doing everything possible to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest and bias. If you’re covering politicians, then you don’t contribute money to political campaigns. If you’re covering General Electric, you shouldn’t be in a position to benefit directly from movement in the company’s stock price. If you work for a news organization owned by a Middle Eastern country and decide to report on that country, you better have all sides of the story, regardless of how that makes the country look. It’s how you look to your audience that matters. The point is to respect the ethical lines and let your audience know you take their trust in your objectivity as seriously as you take your commitment to telling stories that are based on confirmed facts.
These are things we TV journalists can actively do to get back in shape and shape the future. We can’t turn back the clock to a time when everyone watched the evening news at 6:30 p.m. And we can’t pretend the Internet and mobile devices haven’t upended the economic model upon which mainstream TV media depended for decades. It’s a brave new world where only the nimble survive and where we have to adapt to changing technology, shrinking attention spans and innumerable new ways that audiences can choose to spend time and money.
The good news, in my view, is that there’s never been a better time for good TV journalism. The need for credible, intelligent news and analysis has only increased with the number of new threats to our prosperity, safety and security. Viewers and readers need reliable news and information more than ever as they face a world where Wall Street bankers can destroy the economy with arcane financial products, where global warming threatens our environment and where ISIL brings new levels of instability to the Middle East. The public needs a vigorous adult in the room to curate what people need to know about these and other important subjects, even if they’d rather watch cat videos, read celebrity gossip or play video games. Serious news organizations have the potential to be that adult. But only if we take the steps to get ethically healthy, earn the public’s trust and really act like adults.
Al Jazeera America’s Antony Michels contributed to this article.
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