They are selling, are we buying?

Society relies on news organizations for details of events that occur at the local, state, national and global levels. Think of the events that made the news and how they were covered by the media. While a picture is worth a thousand words, radio was often listened to once upon a time. Then, it was the job of the radio announcer to paint a picture. "President John F. Kennedy is assassinated, Congress investigates Watergate, the Iranians seize American hostages, the pope visits Poland, Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem, Nelson Mandela is released, Chinese students occupy Tiananmen Square. Those are just to name a few. The twenty four hour news channel came along and viewers had access to continuous coverage of the Gulf War, the O.J. Simpson trial, Princess Diana's death, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, The Elian Gonzalez standoff, the Florida election debacle, the Gary Condit-Chandra Levy affair and finally the World Trade Center tragedy". (Gondit, 2004 p. 164)

Images can tug at our heart strings. Words can depict emotion. Whether it's in black and white, across a frequency or in color, images and sounds influence emotion and modify behavior."Communication comes at a price." (Gondit, 200 p. 59) It is nearly incomprehensible how much society relies on what news organizations say is going on in the world. Just imagine what news stories are not being covered. There are only a handful of stories that are covered on a daily basis and it comes down to which organization is covering it best. They are selling us their version but are we as a culture buying?

After viewing "Outfoxed" twice, the meaning of being fair and balanced automatically meant politically. After pondering this very intense documentary for nearly eight hours and discussing this among family members, I began to have other questions. What does fair and balanced mean when the story is not politically driven? Does fair and balanced mean that if a drunk driver slams into a family of seven, the coverage will include a segment on the intoxicated driver's life or quotes from his family? Fair and balanced means what the corporate heads want it to mean for that given day. In "Outfoxed" when Bill O'Reilly read an email that discusses his usage of the word shut-up and he claimed to have only used that word once in six years, I found it interesting that all of his "shut-ups" were edited together to prove otherwise. Had I not seen the edited "shut-ups" following that, I might have believed what O'Reilly was trying to convince his audience. It all does come down to backing up facts.

"Buying the War", sold me on how difficult it can be for any news organization to call themselves fair and balanced. After the tragic events of 9/11 had occurred, and life slowly got back to normal, from a viewer's point of view, it seemed like the media had a showdown of who could pass the blame the fastest on why 9/11 happened.

What is their definition of fair and balanced? Once FOX News started that slogan, other news outlets wanted to appear to be fair and balanced. That slogan seemed appealing to the audience and it showed on the Neilson ratings. Tony Snow, former press secretary to President George W. Bush began working for CNN in April of 2008. CNN, as depicted in "Buying the War" is seen as a liberal news organization. Was that CNN's attempt at fair and balanced by having a republican on their payroll? "Buying the War" shows FOX news as the conservative station and CNN as the liberal station.


As Stuart Hall states in his theory, the media sends messages to influence society. Fox began to carry the slogan, "We report, you decide." Society bases their decisions on what they hear, read and see. Every media outlet has the ability to manipulate news stories because of the advertising dollars at stake. In "Outfoxed" when the news coverage showed the people of Iraq drinking water, going to school and living what appeared to be a normal life, there was a reason for that coverage. It was most likely easier to find war zone pictures than pictures of the Iraqi people living a normal life. The corporate heads wanted pictures of a normal life in Iraq and they got them.

When former Fox reporter Jon Du Pre was told to cover Ronald Reagan's birthday bash at the Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, he struggled to make it appear as if there were vast amounts of people there celebrating. Du Pre was told by Fox corporate suits what they expected on that report. Du Pre could not help it if only a few people were at the library which included a fourth grade class taking a tour. Perception is reality. "If media invisibility detracts from solidarity, this is not to say that the opposite is a sure thing." (Gitlin 2004, p. 171)



Gitlin, T. (2001). Media unlimited: How the torrent of images and sounds overwhelms
our lives. New York: Metropolitan Books.

Greenwald, R. (Director). (2004). Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism [Documentary]. United State: The Disinformation Company.

PBS Television. (2007). “Buying the War”. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://jesuitnet.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_2172_1%26url%3d