I spent four years of my life in an organization where I was one of the only people who had never worked as a professional journalist. In that time, I came to realize that Edward R. Murrow was the exception, and the reporters around me were vastly more interested in promoting their own egos than informing the public. Journalism, in my experience, is not about transmitting facts to the public, but finding that great story that will launch your career into the stratosphere. Vanity is the driving force.
That’s why it didn’t surprise me when the national media piled onto the Iraq war train without sparing even a moment for criticism. War is probably the biggest story of all, and many reporters dream of being the fabled war correspondent, bringing the action home to the plebes. Even aged Ted Koppel had to get in on the act, dragging along a compact digital video camera to document first-hand his experiences in the Iraqi Warzone. There was almost a theme park element of covering the war — as if it was this great ride, a rollicking good time.
Now that the country is gearing up for conflict with Iran, the same kinds of stories that justified the Iraq war are starting to bubble to the surface. Most recently, ABC News reported that Iran is within two years of creating a nuclear weapon, but as Glenn Greenwald notes at Salon, there is scant evidence to prove this is actually the case.
The right has complained for years of a “liberal bias” in the media, but it seems to me that that is mistaken. The media has a “power” bias, and is predisposed to support the party in control of Washington. This is why during the Reagan years, there was a bias towards Democrats, who controlled congress. And how now, the bias is towards Republicans, who ran Washington, D.C. with an iron fist from 1994 until 2006. That bias, I think, contributes to the ABC Iran story, but is augmented by the fact that wars are so much fun to cover. They’re just full of great stories.
As we move ahead, I find it impossible to believe anything I hear from the press — either from the mainstream press, the liberal blogosphere, or the right wing media. There is no straight reporting anymore, just the promotion of rival political agendas. If only an Edward R. Murrow figure would emerge to tell the country the truth — but as “Good Night and Good Luck” maintains, even Murrow was pushed out by network executives who viewed that truth as “too controversial” for the public.
