Fair Media Council CEO Jaci Clement traces journalism from Cronkite's authority to today's race for speed, where accuracy suffers. She argues that crises like pandemic, war, and inflation demand a return to rigorous credibility, not just likability or being first.
FMC Fast Chat takes you inside the news so you can be in the know in 30 minutes. Hosted by Fair Media Council CEO and Executive Director Jaci Clement, Fast Chat features notables in news, media, and business.
This week's commentary is News Comes Full Circle. Ever have a situation in front of you for which there seems to be no answer? Factor in a tight deadline demanding an instant answer, and you'll get a taste of what it's like to run a newsroom every moment of every day. When you finally get to call it a night, you find yourself facing a mixed bag of emotions. There's the good— you know you kept the enterprise running by making swift decisions. There's the bad— You know, somewhere during the course of the day you needed more information in which to make a decision, but you didn't have the luxury of time to find out what you were missing. And then there's the ugly. You know you screwed up something, but you don't know what. Combined, this situation explains why the best newsies look like they've never slept a wink in their lives. They haven't. And now that you have the lay of the land, let's level up. The dilemma of journalism in these modern times has been how to establish and maintain credibility after decades of moving news in other directions. We've lived through the era of let's be likable, which gave rise to a genre of news personalities who were the polar opposites of Cronkite and Murrow. These icons were powerful and credible, yes, but also more than a little bit scary. The focus on the new breed of news anchors was approachability. They bantered and joked with others on set. The hope was that you might want to be friends with these people. The rise of digital news pushed things further down the road, with the let's be first mentality taking hold inside newsrooms. But let's be first was often at odds with let's be accurate. By this time in history, that wasn't such a big deal. Credibility had already moved from being the driver of the news to a hapless backseat passenger. And when the rearview mirror reminded the industry how far it went astray, credibility found itself bound and gagged, locked in the trunk. But now we find ourselves living in a news era that is attempting to come full circle, and that's good news. But today's news staffs face a stiff learning curve, not only in how to build out credibility, but how to do it in a dramatically different media landscape, one in which anyone with a broadband connection may claim to be a, quote, real, unquote, news outlet. Current events are demanding this new emphasis on the old-time concept of credibility unfold, well, right now. A 100-year pandemic, war in Europe, rising oil and wheat prices that curtail Americans' ability to take a road trip or make a sandwich, aren't the type of issues that call for likability or first instead of accurate news standards, are they? More tough decisions and even less sleep. That's what's demanded of newsrooms today. It's not just about improving the news, but strengthening democracy and America too. That's what makes it worthwhile and a far more interesting proposition than what the last couple of news eras delivered.
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