Attention-getting antics effectively create a denial-of-service attack by overwhelming media and squeezing out responsible content. There have been many, PT Barnum and Buffalo Bill Cody used similar talent standing on a stump or soapbox to sell entertainment. Hearst used flamboyance in print to sell more newspapers, so what if it started a war. Franklin Roosevelt used radio to overcome his natural handicap, polio, because he could not walk. Charles De Gaulle, frustrated by an ungovernable country, France, that had 267 kinds of cheese said “You can have the free press, give me television.” Television brought infotainment to new heights and changed campaigning forever. TV is a very powerful selling medium. American presidents since Dwight D. Eisenhower have used (abused?) television to manipulate public attitudes to get elected and to govern. Everyone was caught by surprise when an obscure businessman dominating an obscure social media site recruited millions of followers. By the time the mainstream politicians caught on, Twitter and the Twitterati were dominated by an outsider.
The Western world, that is from Ukraine to Taiwan, values a free press. Newspapers and other responsible publishers have generally adhered to the New York Times slogan “All the news that’s fit to print.” Some have gone a bit beyond fit to print, but it is for the most part an industry that self regulates. Nobody that pays $5 for lurid Hustler expects the same content from the New York Times or West Hawaii Today. Journalists are admonished to get a second reliable source for any factoid they propose to publish. They are far from perfect, but they try. I know from comparing police reports to news reports they get it mostly right the first time around, and usually correct mistakes that matter.
When radio was intruded, it was initially a service of existing publications and was considered part of “the press” too. Major broadcast has for the greater part stuck with the same standards as print. There are extremists in broadcast as there are in print, but responsible publishers attract more subscribers. More people listen to National Public Radio (NPR) than Alex Jones. More read the Christian Science Monitor than the Daily Kos, but there are some persuasive hucksters that attract more than their fair share.
Social media are the new entry into the information opinion market. They have a huge business advantage in that their fixed cost is extremely low. No presses or transmitters, no studios, just bandwidth that costs almost nothing. Content too is free, no reporters, no high-paid talent, no office space, an opinion free-for-all. Now every outlier, can out-lie responsible journalists. Anyone with access to an internet keyboard can post his opinions, facts, factoids or outright lies at any time. The media sites, if they want to continue the freedom they enjoy as part of the free press need to self-regulate. Interestingly, it was the new kid in town, Twitter, that was among the first to flag questionable content. Self-regulation is not censorship, they rent bandwidth and just like the traditional media have a right to decide what they publish on their territory. Traditional media will refuse advertising or other material that in their judgment would be offensive to or misinform their readers. They could help their credibility by not labeling extremists as conservative. We need a new but descriptive name for the extreme right that has supported absurd claims, maybe regressives. Vandals and rioters are not conservative by any traditional definition any more than all liberals are burn-it-all-down socialists. Pejorative names do not help. Isms, like Peronism, or Marxism often survive their namesake.
The free press triumphs over lies and nonsense because the liars, no matter how glib, eventually collapse under the weight of the accumulated contradictions and proven falsehoods. If a claim sounds too amazing to be true, it’s probably not. The traditional media are not blameless. Did they have to publish every nonsense outburst, along with a four-color portrait and a copy of the response to every absurd tweet along with the original tweet countless times in larger print than the report? Some news isn’t fit to reprint.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. Send feedback to obenskik@gmail.com