Leonard Downie Jr. & Robert G. Kaiser: The News About The News: American Journalism In Peril

For anyone who keeps up with current events, The News About The News, a finger-wagging audit of American journalism, contains precisely zero revelations about corporatized media and its withering effects on the trade. But the authors, Leonard Downie Jr. and Robert Kaiser, both veteran newsmen for The Washington Post since 1964, prove to be masters of the obvious, sharpening a broad critique with back-to-basics journalistic values and a thorough complement of case studies, interviews, and facts. Beating the same drum incessantly (and at times monotonously), they contend that corporate ownership, in its emphasis on shareholders over civic duty and massive short-term profits over long-term viability, has exacted a heavy price on quality and turned people off on the news. In other words, good news is good business: In spite of the ruthless strip-mining of editorial staffs and reporting budgets, and an increasing emphasis on frivolous stories over substantive ones, the quick gains can only cover the plummeting circulation and ratings numbers for so long. Surveying the scene from an ivory tower, Downie and Kaiser are able to see the big picture with exceptional clarity, but a condescending tone slips into their writing; in an effort to reach both media insiders and the public, they wind up talking down to both. The first three chapters, in particular, read like a crash course in remedial journalism, with a brief history of the field and elementary points about why news is important and makes a difference in people's everyday lives. To even the most casual observer, these truths should be a given, although they're part of the book's argument that the basic tenets of journalism are under assault. The News picks up once the authors take a closer look at the declining quality of newspapers and network-television broadcasts, not to mention the bottom-feeding local and cable news channels that poach stories from other sources and contribute little original reporting beyond "live" non-events and puff pieces. Downie and Kaiser are not afraid to take shots at the publications that have lost their prestige and value to chains such as Knight-Ridder and Gannett, which have built empires of mediocrity out of small- and medium-market newspapers. Under corporate cost-cutting measures, profits have soared as readership has dwindled, portending a grim future in which even low-rent journalism won't find enough buyers. The authors favor sturdy old war-horses like The New York Times and the Post, which are each owned by a single family and hold onto readers through in-depth stories and comprehensive reportage. Broadcast news rarely if ever achieves such quality, hampered as it is by time constraints, technical problems, and a thirst for the dramatic. Downie and Kaiser spent time with the anchors of all three major networks and asked them to compare an early-'80s broadcast with a current one. Not surprisingly, the stories are now much shorter and punchier, the graphic elements are flashier, and more room is given to celebrity news and infotainment with little impact on people's lives. (Of the three, only CBS's Dan Rather seems to regret the changes.) As a result, viewers are either fleeing to other sources—including cable networks and Internet sites, which The News dismisses as essentially worthless—or away from news altogether. A grim but convincing overview of the troubled industry, The News About The News latches onto Sept. 11 coverage as a beacon of hope, the one time when every news outlet expanded its capabilities and served a public in dire need of information. People are interested in news and world events again, Downie and Kaiser argue, and journalists have a renewed opportunity to bring them sustenance.