What Rates As Newsworthy Nowadays

It’s no secret to most people who know me how I feel about the trend in recent years on the part of lazy journalists and news outlets to present polling data as news – a piece that I wrote on this very subject can be found here. A recent CNN story only further illustrates the absurdity, and often nefarious purposes, of this irresponsible practice.

In a February 14 story, the “news” network that was the creation of Ted Turner ran a story in which it was revealed that one-fifth of Americans believe, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, that it was likely that their conversations had been “wiretapped” – a reference, although incorrectly termed, to the Bush Administration’s “Terrorist Surveillance Program” that has caused such a stir recently.

Left out of the presentation of the poll results was any explanation as to why the people who believe they have been monitored feel the way they do. The logical thing to assume is that this is because no such reasons were given – or even likely asked for.

But as long as such poll responses are going to be presented as newsworthy, why not take a poll asking Americans to identify those bodies currently lying in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery? Or how many people believe that their homes have been photographed by extra-terrestrials? The responses, and thus the data so compiled would be just as meaningful as that presented in this recent actual poll.

It seems that what was important to those who conducted this poll was to give the impression that a significant portion of Americans believe that they are being watched by Big Brother. For while it is true that twenty-one percent falls far short of a majority, the fact that it is one-fifth of the public unquestionably makes it a significant portion. And if a significant portion feels this way, the unspoken implication is that maybe more of us should be worried about this as well.

Now I’m not prepared to say that the fact that the reasons behind the responses were left unaddressed was an intentional omission. But any objective observer who has watched or read any of the news and commentary produced by CNN, or listened to the rants of its egomaniacal founder, knows that there is a history here of an anti-Bush tilt. In that light, it is not unreasonable to wonder if, at the very least, it was an oversight made possible by the intense desire on the part of those presenting the data to make a point from the results – that a portion of the public that fears the imperial presidency as large as twenty-one percent suggests that there is something substantive to this fear.

This whole story only demonstrates again the trend in much of the media toward influencing public perception of current issues, rather than simply presenting facts and letting the public form its own opinion – remember Wolf Blitzer’s statement that he “makes” the news? Most likely, this is because simply presenting facts all too often works against the perception they are trying to create.

What passes for “serious journalism” in the media today – as demonstrated by this poll – would be laughable, but for the very serious fact that an unwillingness on the part of reporters to report facts and events – as opposed to having press releases and poll data handed to them – often means that the public does not have the amount and quality of information it needs in order to come to truly informed opinions. In a nation where the people are to be sovereign – based on the notion they will know what they are talking about – this can be a serious problem. The news media ought to be part of the solution to this problem, but this episode shows that, all too often, they are a major contributor to it.