Last week Jay Rosen countered the CW that the political press is either a bunch of liberal toadies (rightwing meme) or a pack of corporate lackies (leftwing meme) in an excellent post Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right: On the Actual Ideology of the American Press. Here are Rosen's terms for this ideology (bold) along with short descriptions (mine):
Church of Savvy - the self preening notion that the press holds itself above the fray, free of bias, cooly objective
Quest for Innocence - the press drive to avoid being perceived as having been suckered into anyone's service or cause
Regression to a Phony Mean - the preposterous notion that "truth" can be found by averaging counterveiling arguments
The View from Nowhere - the purported neutrality that uniquely enables the press to compute the "Phony Mean" better than anyone else
He Said, She Said Journalism - press refuge from actually sorting out the facts which works extremely well with the "Phony Mean" and the "View from Nowhere"
The Sphere of Deviance - where errant journalists and excitable public figures are sent after straying too far from CW in an excitable fashion. Anybody seen Jimmy Carter lately?
This is great stuff. Rosen and Julian Sanchez discuss at bloggingheads.tv. While mainly in agreement,Julian Sanchez notes "He Said, She Said" and "Regression to the Mean" are time-saving shortcuts to making deadlines. Both he and Marc Ambinder challenge Rosen to propose something better than the quest for objectivity sought by the "Church of the Savvy" and the "View from Nowhere". Jay Rosen responds here.
But there is a lot more going on here. Neither Rosen nor his respondents address the pseudo press where propaganda, entertainment and celebrity comingle behind the trappings of conventional journalism (e.g. Fox News, pundits, cable/radio personas). America is more misinformed than ever. Who could have predicted that as the gulf drowns in oil and spins out hurricanes, our economy teeters on a double dip recession, unemployment hovers around 10%, the Supreme Court empowers corporations as persons, that voters might be on the brink of reelecting the same folks who created this mess? The facts are clear but America is unconvinced.
Rosen aptly describes a press ideology that neuters reality. And the pseudo press is pathological. But how much responsibility does the audience bear? Rosen mentions Tucker Carlson's speech at CPAC where the audience booed when Carlson maintained that conservatives need to "get out find out what’s going on" like the NY Times does. What if the majority of Americans just want to pack up the 'illegals', pay less taxes, retire early, drive gas guzzlers, believe in the basic goodness of US Chamber of Commerce, blame Barack Obama, punish a few financial institutions, ignore global warming, and wave American flags? And if this doesn't fly, they just don't want to hear about it?