Julian Zelizer: Gotcha Politics Gone Wild
[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism," a book on the presidency of George W. Bush and a book on former President Carter, to be published next fall by Times Books.]
While nostalgia is always a dangerous thing, during the dominance of major newspapers and network news in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a virtue to the fact that editors and producers retained much tighter control over information before it reached the public. Although the system was far from perfect, there was some kind of check against spreading unsubstantiated information or releasing stories without placing them in their proper context.
The production of the network news was indicative of how slow and controlled the news cycle was. Until the 1980s, the television news cycle revolved around half-hour broadcasts in the evening at 7. In the morning, the news division met to discuss stories in the major newspapers. Executives, anchors and producers debated which stories should be highlighted. The executive producer (with the tacit permission of the anchor) would contact the bureaus to develop the pieces that he had decided to run....
While there is more news today, studies have shown that the press has reduced the actual time and space allotted to politicians in favor of sound bites.
This environment creates a dangerous atmosphere and fuels feeding frenzies. Politicians, or even military officials, can be brought down within hours regardless of the accuracy of the information or the context in which particular statements were delivered. The blogger David Weigel learned of the dangers of this medium when leaked private conversations from a listserv were published by conservative websites and resulted in his resignation from The Washington Post (although MSNBC's "Countdown" soon hired him as a contributor)....
Read entire article at CNN.com
While nostalgia is always a dangerous thing, during the dominance of major newspapers and network news in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a virtue to the fact that editors and producers retained much tighter control over information before it reached the public. Although the system was far from perfect, there was some kind of check against spreading unsubstantiated information or releasing stories without placing them in their proper context.
The production of the network news was indicative of how slow and controlled the news cycle was. Until the 1980s, the television news cycle revolved around half-hour broadcasts in the evening at 7. In the morning, the news division met to discuss stories in the major newspapers. Executives, anchors and producers debated which stories should be highlighted. The executive producer (with the tacit permission of the anchor) would contact the bureaus to develop the pieces that he had decided to run....
While there is more news today, studies have shown that the press has reduced the actual time and space allotted to politicians in favor of sound bites.
This environment creates a dangerous atmosphere and fuels feeding frenzies. Politicians, or even military officials, can be brought down within hours regardless of the accuracy of the information or the context in which particular statements were delivered. The blogger David Weigel learned of the dangers of this medium when leaked private conversations from a listserv were published by conservative websites and resulted in his resignation from The Washington Post (although MSNBC's "Countdown" soon hired him as a contributor)....