The Failings of the News Media and The Rise of Political Satire
There was once a time in America where the institution of the news media reached its peak in excellence and trustworthiness. Across the country, people would gather around the television every evening and watch live journalism at work. Each evening, news anchors reported national and global events as it happened. It was a new innovation of the 20th century; viewers could now see their journalists in addition to hearing them. Since the founding of this nation, news in printed format was available to the public. With the development of technology, news forums began to emerge, leading to the dawn of broadcasting by radio, television and finally cable television. Long after the television sign off every night, viewers were given a daily dose of awareness of the day’s events, and left to decide how these events affect them. This type of coverage was pure, unadulterated news of the days of old, before the age of computers, social media and news aggregators. It was legendary CBS television anchor Walter Cronkite, known popularly as “the most trusted man in America” who once said, “In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story….Our job is only to hold up the mirror - to tell and show the public what has happened.” It was these tenets that moved Cronkite to broadcast his famous 1968 editorial condemning the role of the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. It was said that President Lyndon B. Johnson felt that if he lost Cronkite, he had lost America. Less than a few months after the broadcast, President Johnson announced his withdrawal from the upcoming presidential election. Indeed the impact that the media once had, unbridled by government influence, was a force to be reckoned with.
However, in the present day, the notion that the media’s purpose of being the watchdog of the government seems to have transformed into a farce to be reckoned with. With the advent of the internet...