Cracker-barrel No. 1: Who controls news coverage?

WORLD readers regularly send me letters that ask some basic or important questions. That can sometimes feed into my prideful desire to be a cracker-barrel philosopher, discoursing on every topic under the sun, so when I’m ignorant (which is often) I generally say so. Sometimes, though, when I have had experience—as I’ve had with journalism and journalists—I offer observations.

A North Carolina couple asked me:

“Who (or what) controls the news in our country? We’ve noted that all papers and TV stations cover the same topics—just with a different slant. How does this happen? Does the White House decide what is to be reported on or what is to be covered and for how long? … Is there a group of reporters somewhere who decides each day what will be reported—what should be put on the back page or ignored? Seems to us someone is controlling it all. Who is it?”

My cracker-barrel response: Secular liberals dominate almost all major newspapers and TV networks, and they report according to their worldview. Some talk, email, and party together. They write to please each other rather than to tell the truth and serve their readers and viewers. Ambitious young reporters learn that their career prospects depend on kissing up to bad ideas and sometimes bad people. Usually, though, common stories grow out of common beliefs rather than conspiracy.

Reporters respond to two major stimuli outside of the journalistic hive: public relations people and events. Their susceptibility to the former depends on whether the news and views they receive makes sense in terms of their worldview. When the Obama PR apparatus tells journalists that America’s problem is inequality and the selfishness of the rich, that makes sense to most of them and they write stories accordingly. When conservative Christians say same-sex marriage is a problem, that doesn’t make sense to most reporters, so they tend to ignore or condescend to such reports.

Events also stimulate stories, but the extent of coverage and the slant depend on the reporters’ worldviews and on who within the journalistic community influences them. Writers on The New York Times are influential because editors of less influential newspapers read their work and tell their reporters to go and do likewise. Particularly admired individuals from other newspapers also become the leaders of their packs.