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The Story of Roone

I heard the United States bombed targets inside Iran on Sunday, and it occurred to me to turn on a news channel and learn more. I didn’t. I haven’t been watching any of the cable or network news media outlets since the 2024 election. I learned my lesson. Their goal is to keep me watching, which means endless spin and prognosis and sensationalization to make me think I need to “stay tuned” regardless of how far away from the facts they stray.

 

The concepts of

 

-hard news

 

-fairness

 

-objectivity

 

-accuracy, and

 

-bias

 

are nonexistent in network and cable news today. To be clear, I’m addressing news organizations specifically. The above virtues are still taught in journalism schools. Whether or not they are faithfully practiced is another story.

 

Here’s what happened…the story of Roone.

 

Roone Arledge got his street cred running ABC Sports starting in 1968, making this third network (an offshoot of NBC) competitive with the other two. His genius was marketing, and he was always looking for ways to draw sports fans in, with programming like coverage of the Olympics and Wide World of Sports. This is all fine and well for “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” It made ABC more profitable with more capacity for new and different kinds of programming in its entertainment division.

 

The point? In 1977 ABC made Arledge the head of its news division on top of sports. He brought his splashy sense of the sensational with him and created programming like Nightline (which took off during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979) and 20/20 which continues to this day, making the network the leader in network news for the next decade. Until Arledge, news divisions were separated out from the rest of network entertainment to give it that sense of fairness and impartiality, and they typically cost the networks money to run. Arledge moved the news division under entertainment and made it accountable for not only covering its costs, but turning a profit. Unlike the era of Cronkite and Huntley & Brinkley and even Jennings, where journalistic integrity was protected from the for-profit side of the house, the news was now for sale.

 

By the late 1980’s, ABC News was the network news leader in ratings and profits, and the other networks followed suit trying to keep up. Long story short, once each news agency started being expected to bring in revenue, the spin and sensationalism became rampant. Then came 24 hour cable news networks. Then came those networks unapologetically unfurling banners of political bias to corner their own segment of the media market. Then came the rise of politicians - all politicians - organizing under those media banners to advance their political goals...and the news networks aligning with said politicians to bolster their influence. It's all very self-serving, symbiotic and financially advantageous for everyone involved.

 

In 2016, Chuck Todd cockily assured me that Hillary was a shoo-in on election eve. I never watched him again. In 2024, Rachel Maddow assured me that Kamala was going to win. November 6th I turned off network news forever. Now every time I see news items that claim the world is coming to an end, I look to different independent sources and wait and see what – if anything – actually happens.

 

Last week the commander in chief held a military parade in the streets of our nations capital. There was much ringing of hands and gnashing of teeth that the heavy equipment would tear up the asphalt on Constitution Avenue. And while I was not a proponent of making June in DC look like May in Moscow, I’m here to tell you that I drove down Constitution Avenue last night and there was no damage to the surface of the roads. Politicians on both sides now take every statement to the extreme without any basis in fact because they know our news agencies will run with it to keep their viewers watching.

 

When the current president was reelected last November, Joe Scarborough immediately flew down to Mar-a-Lago to smooth over his years of rhetoric comparing the then candidate to Hitler, warning of dire consequences if he regained the reins of power. I was struck by his fearful foreboding at the time, but I woke up when I realized his only real priority is to remain relevant during 47’s second term. No integrity. No credibility. Part of the same circus as the man he was railing against. That was the day I turned off all cable and network news for good.

 

Here's my thinking. None of us, no matter where we sit on the political spectrum, can be complaining about any politician of any flavor lying or playing to a specific audience when our mainstream news agencies are complicit. We are not getting hard news, facts and data on which we can make the best decisions for our communities. And until we all wake up and demand unbiased, fair and accurate reporting of the facts, we’re going to continue to be told whatever they think we want to hear to keep us in their camps as viewers and voters. Thanks, Roone. Thanks for nothin’…

 

Why can't we have both: journalistic integrity and compelling news coverage? Think about it...if we truly trusted our news sources, we'd be the loyal viewers they hope for. At the rate they're going now, they are producing a cynical electorate that is turning them off one disillusioned viewer at a time.


What we need is an entirely different use of the pejorative, "woke" - as in "woke up and realized we are being sold out!"


Want change? We need to change ourselves. Change our expectations for our news sources and our elected officials. It’s the ultimate act of disruption, and it’s the only way change is going to come.

 



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