Andrew on TexANG
Well, apparently I beat Amanda to the blog, too! Yea!
Jessica,
Wouldn't it be wonderful if newsrooms were more concerned with an accurate portrayal of a story rather than being fixated with the hunger to be the "first on the scene" or to "scoop" a rival? Wouldn't it be wonderful if newsrooms cared about credibility over competition, public concern over commercial image, truth over Nielsen ratings/circulation figures/readership surveys/market trends? Wouldn't it be wonderful if newsrooms became more "human" again?
Alas, from a purist perspective, this will never be the case. Journalism, as I've said before, is a commercial enterprise. (Sorry to be a broken record.) Therefore, in this capitalist system of ours, there are winners ... and there are most definitely losers. There are industry "stars" ... and there are minimum-wage mailroom peons. There are "friends" ... and there are cutthroat "enemies". There is a right way to conduct business ... and there is a wrong way. Any misstep along the way, and you risk losing your position in the pecking order of public awareness.
Unfortunately, for the CBS News team on the TexANG story, everyone fell victim to the pressures/joys journalists experience on a daily basis. It's part of who we are. It's a part of who we become. If you're serious about this business, you're naturally competitive. There is a hunger that goes along with crafting a story like TexANG. You want to taste the glory of greatness, to see your work praised among your peers. You want to taste your own slice of immortality, to know what it feels like to blaze a trail in the black forests of ignorance. And when this quest becomes all too consuming to contain in the innermost crevices of your conscience, the story becomes you. The story drives you. This is when you know things start to get serious. You follow the story's eccentricities -- every last one of them, until the journey for justice is exhausted (or postponed for a greater battle) -- often without explanation or the very need for one. This may sound strange, but you become so engrossed with every development's twist and turn, the boundaries of reason become blurred. Your ability to stop and say "Hey, wait a second, this doesn't seem right..." becomes weakened, because such caution could compromise your hunger. Such caution could compromise you. And during this most fragile of ethical tangos, truth -- whether we are mature enough to admit so or not -- becomes marginalized. It becomes something less immediate at the forefront of our minds. It becomes something less of a concern.
This is why, in my opinion, the CBS News team failed. They failed not because they were ulterior in their motives, not because they were biased or unfair. But because, at their core, they let the joys of journalism neutralize their ability to step back from the hunger. They let their "second nature" compromise their ability to question their rush to glory. In the end, the CBS News team failed not because they were subhuman of some sort or careless -- although they most certainly were. But this would be too shallow of an assessment...
Yes, in the end, the CBS News team failed, because they couldn't escape the story, they couldn't escape themselves. They couldn't step back from the chase. And this, when it was all said and done, cost people their jobs, their livelihoods. The pressures to produce cost everyone involved a piece of who they once were...
Jessica,
Wouldn't it be wonderful if newsrooms were more concerned with an accurate portrayal of a story rather than being fixated with the hunger to be the "first on the scene" or to "scoop" a rival? Wouldn't it be wonderful if newsrooms cared about credibility over competition, public concern over commercial image, truth over Nielsen ratings/circulation figures/readership surveys/market trends? Wouldn't it be wonderful if newsrooms became more "human" again?
Alas, from a purist perspective, this will never be the case. Journalism, as I've said before, is a commercial enterprise. (Sorry to be a broken record.) Therefore, in this capitalist system of ours, there are winners ... and there are most definitely losers. There are industry "stars" ... and there are minimum-wage mailroom peons. There are "friends" ... and there are cutthroat "enemies". There is a right way to conduct business ... and there is a wrong way. Any misstep along the way, and you risk losing your position in the pecking order of public awareness.
Unfortunately, for the CBS News team on the TexANG story, everyone fell victim to the pressures/joys journalists experience on a daily basis. It's part of who we are. It's a part of who we become. If you're serious about this business, you're naturally competitive. There is a hunger that goes along with crafting a story like TexANG. You want to taste the glory of greatness, to see your work praised among your peers. You want to taste your own slice of immortality, to know what it feels like to blaze a trail in the black forests of ignorance. And when this quest becomes all too consuming to contain in the innermost crevices of your conscience, the story becomes you. The story drives you. This is when you know things start to get serious. You follow the story's eccentricities -- every last one of them, until the journey for justice is exhausted (or postponed for a greater battle) -- often without explanation or the very need for one. This may sound strange, but you become so engrossed with every development's twist and turn, the boundaries of reason become blurred. Your ability to stop and say "Hey, wait a second, this doesn't seem right..." becomes weakened, because such caution could compromise your hunger. Such caution could compromise you. And during this most fragile of ethical tangos, truth -- whether we are mature enough to admit so or not -- becomes marginalized. It becomes something less immediate at the forefront of our minds. It becomes something less of a concern.
This is why, in my opinion, the CBS News team failed. They failed not because they were ulterior in their motives, not because they were biased or unfair. But because, at their core, they let the joys of journalism neutralize their ability to step back from the hunger. They let their "second nature" compromise their ability to question their rush to glory. In the end, the CBS News team failed not because they were subhuman of some sort or careless -- although they most certainly were. But this would be too shallow of an assessment...
Yes, in the end, the CBS News team failed, because they couldn't escape the story, they couldn't escape themselves. They couldn't step back from the chase. And this, when it was all said and done, cost people their jobs, their livelihoods. The pressures to produce cost everyone involved a piece of who they once were...
posted by Andrew Astleford at
10:59 AM
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