Be Unreasonable History Robert Lyndon Patton State of Journalism College Final Project

Abstract Be Freedom unreasonable. of the press is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution of United the States. As is well understood, that special privilege is extended to the press for purpose ofthe informing the public who, by their consent, empower government to pro their inalienable rights. But is the press still performing that function. How w tect ell isdoing press the the job expected of it and, most important is the press getting bett er at it or worse.

Shakespeare Be History Introducing unreasonable. of Journalism the players tells us that Final the Project world is a stage on which players live out their r oles. is stage Oura free society in which government exists to protect the rights of the people. do what they The people believe will give them the best lives in terms of well being, healt h, safety, and prosperity. But as other players come on stage, the plot, as they say, thickens. The Citizens THE People PLAYERS of the nation want to live their lives without interference most of the they time. also Butwant to be safe and secure in their persons and property. If disaster strikes they protection and want aid. Whatever they have, they want more, but this is only human. They put trust in government their and expect that trust be justified. They also want governmen t to be officials, bureaucrats and government employees want the same things tha Elected Government accountable t others do, but they also want more. If they hurt others, intentionally or not, while at immunity. work, they The expect public understands that there are situations when a business goes brokepayroll, meet or failsbut to those in government expect to paid no matter what. Others may realize their pay that rate is set by the marketplace, but those in government collectively s et theirAll scales. ownpeople pay are corruptible to some extent. Some limit infractions to an occasional during working callhours on the office phone. We call these people honest. Governmen t officials are

exposed Be unreasonable. to more temptation that any other group of people so it is no surprise t o find in government. corruption If it never goes farther than fixing a parking ticket, most of us concerned, are not terribly but often it goes much farther. A business that knowingly promises cu stomerstake thing, one their money, and fails to deliver the goods is guilty of fraud and s ubject topenalties. criminal civil and Politicians campaigning for public office can do exactly the enjoy same total thing immunity. but They can, of course, be impeached and removed from office, political Writers The butpress only and their friends is Reporters expected and to colleagues inform the have public the power of breaches to do that. of trust, crime, governme action, natural disasters, economic crises, and thousand of other things that ma ntal ke aschools impact Our Educators significant on the are lives expected of the toconsumers teach us what of journalistic we need to do content well at our jobs and per lives, but also to make us good judges of the effectiveness and performance of t sonal hose to represent we choose us on the domestic and the world stage. What we dont know can hurt u s andjust does Businesses Corporations often that. function to make money, but we would like them to do more than just t We expect profits to be earned by delivering quality products at reasonable pric hat. es to discriminating consumers, We want those products or services to be created or pe rformed happy employees by or subcontractors working under healthful conditions and receivi ng fair rates of pay.

Until Be Media unreasonable. Companiesjournalistic services were provided by corporations ranging in si recently ze from the small-town newspaper to the multibillion dollar conglomerate. To make money, companies media must provide content that consumers will pay for or deliver readers, l isteners, viewers Understanding The players that orthat are thewe proven problem havebuyers just introduced of what advertisers have interests are selling. that often clash. Govern ment, no matter what the Bill of Rights has to say, has a great deal of power over the me dia. If thegovernor or mayor issues a statement, that statement is news. If the President, statement further questions, raises answers may not be forthcoming. If a reporter writes a negati ve story, have The government difficulty he might has getting developed anything sophisticated from the newsmaker methods of incontrolling the future.the press with out the appearance of doing so. An event may be closed to the public and only a pool rep orter it. What mayhappens cover is that the pool reporter attends, writes a story, submits it t o a government office and thenpress the story is shared with other media organizations who were not allowed Clearly, attend. to reporters viewed as less than friendly are not going to play th e role of Recently, reporter. pool at a fundraiser for the Obama campaign, political opponents paid about $75,000 to attend so that they could protest recent Presidential policy. A pool reporter been authorized who hadto write the pool copy for print publications, took her digital video her The bag Obama camera and campaign shot out the oforganization whole thing. cried foul on the grounds that she had only been authorized for print; she will not be allowed to attend Obama events in the futu re. That means

that Be unreasonable. future pool reporters at the Presidents closed campaign events will have bee n warned one step out thatof line means excommunication from the inner circle, a potential ca reer is This killer. a mini version of the embedded journalist strategy that has allowed gove control of war coverage. The result is that US debt has increased by 1.5 trillio rnment n dollars foreign wars duewhich to have not been objectively reported to the American public. No was journalist focusingwho on his future in the business would be likely to turn down a slot i n a military unit. Theoretically, the Freedom of Information Act gives journalists the key to unloc k government secrets unless they are related to national security. In practice, th e government throw many obstacles can in the path of journalistic researchers. The White House ca n and has records for sealed decades. When the locks are picked, as in the current Wikileaks cont roversy, story official the is that unauthorized leaks, even if they address crimes by govern ment, tantamount It is important are to high to remember treason. that the rationale for a free press is to keep the p informed about what the government is doing. Press freedom may help a journalist ublic the investigating sex life of a celebrity without being the target of a lawsuit, but no one wo uld argue freedom ofthat the press was Constitutionally protected for that or any similar reas Still, there are other tasks that we look to the press to accomplish. More than on. ever we are before, surrounded with issues and questions that require expert analysis. Global oil, warming, alternative peak energy, medical costs, deceptive advertising, corporate malfeas ance, are fraud consumer just a few of the many issues that we the people need to understand. T he put to alternative blind trust is in government for all things and the governments track record in these other areas anddoes not justify such confidence.

Butunreasonable. Be there are powerful interests involved in all of these issues and each side h as its team ofown experts to back up its position. For a long time, the tobacco industry w as able and experts to trot research out studies that demonstrated that cigarette smoke, at worst, m ight irritate smokers throat a a bit. For that minor problem they brought out filters and menthol ation. Inthey fifties, the partnered with journalists. Every Friday night on a daily news sho w called News Caravan, the Camel pioneer anchor John Cameron Swayze would finish up the newscast by This There saying week is :a saying gift cartons that people of Camels get the go out government to the following they deserve. Veterans CouldHospitals it also be true that people get the information they deserve? In the most recent Presidential electio n, John McCain expressed the view that the American people would be willing to remain in Iraq f or 100 years Americans were ifnot dying there. The war in Vietnam ended not because it no longe r made but because sense, television brought images of Americans dying into our homes on almos t a daily basis. Once we were out of Saigon, few noticed that the killing continued, but i n awas reach It more manner. the out-ofarmsVietnamese military that stopped the carnage in Cambodia, a bloodbath Richard that Nixon helped start. Where were the journalists when the US invaded Iraq for the time? Sadly, second the answer is that the most admired journalists in the field, those profession, at the top were of their excitedly packing their gear to go in with the troops. What the needed American desperately people before that turn of events were authoritative answers to impo rtant Was Saddam questions. Hussein really a threat? Did an invasion serve American interests or anyone elses interests for that matter? Was it really credible that a people who differed fro m Americans religion, language, in and culture would welcome foreign troops as liberators?

critical, Be These unreasonable. questions is notwere the sort not asked. of fare Why? theBecause averagethis American kind wants of information, after a days however hard wo What about the Israel-Palestine crisis? The messages on both cable and network n rk. ews very not are informative. Hamas and Hizbollah are terrorist organizations. The Pales tinian have rejected generous offers that would have established a Palestinian state. Muslim s will accept nothing less than the destruction of the State of Israel. Israels bulldozing of h ouses, creating walls, building of Jews-only roads and zones are nothing more than measures for self-defense. course, none of Ofthis is true, but you would never learn this from the six oclock Not that Americans would object to seeing Israeli self-defense measures on TV, but news. Israelis Part the of the areproblem smart enough is theto nature keep of cameras television. away during Many of most todays of these most operations. important is have been thoroughly investigated by writers who produce books of several hundre sues d pages dig intothat things and come up with useful answers. Few of these books attract larg e numbersAlmost readers. of no one makes a living writing this type of book. Some authors ar e tenured others are supported by non-profit foundations, still more are suppo professors, rted by If spouse. a well-todo such a book attracts any attention, it may lead to lectures or guest appearancesor television onradio talk shows. If the show host is friendly to the ideas and fi ndings the authors in thetwo book, hundred thousand words in print will boil down to ten minutes on the air. Should the show host be unfriendly, the author can be faced off with one or two opponents have not read who the book and are there to shout down the author who in extreme cas es may be toof subjected Newspapers, a course, torrent can of abuse tell more from of thethe host. story, but newspapers are on the dec line and

so are Be unreasonable. most magazines. All media are faced with the problem of keeping the light s on need they and for readers, this listeners and viewers. If audiences wanted serious, analytica l journalism conveyed a deep that understanding of important issues, journalist would have to prov ide it and schools would have to train future journalist in the art of digging o journalism ut vitaljournalist putting Instead them facts, together are, and not drawing surprisingly, valid conclusions. trained to give the audience what it w Sometimes this is more than enough. Todays reporters and editors are good at inve ants. fraud and corporate wrongdoing. Here one is dealing with facts. What did the cor stigating executives do that was improper, fraudulent or just plain wrong? How were the vi porate ctims What The Bernie is affected? theMadoff government case is doing an example. about it?When Madoff was exposed, the press got rig ht and it on the public ate it up. But still, why didnt the press uncover the fraud lon g ago before investors lost all those billions. There were plenty of red flags. Years earlier had at reported least onethat journalist Madoffs claims were unbelievable and unsubstantiated. There was up. no Further follow- investigation would be costly and it was the governments job to inves tigate In 1991, fraud. the author of this paper observed a fraudulent scheme in progress in Be Hills, California. A smooth talking con artist had rented an entire floor in an verly office buildiing without paying a dime in rent. He did this on the strength of the Dun & Bradstre et rating Florida corporation of a that he claimed to represent. To attract such a blue-chip te nant, the owners hadbuilding offered several months free rent. The con man, Tony was his name, the n proceeded to furnish the floor with expensive rugs, artwork, and furnishing all on the cre dit ofHe firm. the filled Florida the offices with consultants who were promised a percentage of p rofits generated

through Be unreasonable. their association with this well-financed enterprise (the present writer Then, was one furnishings of these). started to leave the premises at night and new stuff would arr ive during A secretary to the replace day. whoit happened to live near Tony observed that she had seen rented tru being loaded or unloaded at his garage. Then, without warning, the Beverly Hills cks closed officeand wasconsultants arriving in the morning found the place locked and the pr omised had vanished. profitsAll of this was reported to a detective at Beverly Hills police he adquarters. enough to goNot on, he said. Youll have to bring us more information. So much for expec government ting In fairnessto toinvestigate journalists, fraud. if the general public wanted to understand important instead issues of simply relying on elected officials and bureaucrats to do the right t hing, operate would the press in a different fashion. But it all starts with education. Statisti cs suggestare Americans that very well educated. More and more graduate high school and more an d more to college. go But in 16 or more years of schooling, what do most really learn? Rea ding skills rather poor.are While almost all Americans are literate, few have read many books t hat were once considered classics. Students graduate from American high schools lacking the mo st basicEconomics skills. math is not a subject that is required at any level of American edu cation course, If politicians a voter unless youknows choose are oftelling nothing to major them about in about economics. economics the economy, how canabout they unemployment, judge and evaluate or about whatthe dollar? outlookWhen for things the go wrong, politicians look for scapegoats. For some reason, nothing the fault isof ever the politicians. Journalists should be investigating and casting li ght on the root causes

If the Be of unreasonable. these author issues ofbut this few paper journalists can permitted know much another about bit economics of anecdotal either. evidence, in 1973, was the heexecutive editor of a business newspaper that covered the electronics fi eld. Theand minimal staff thewas workload immense. A young woman named Max was an assistant edito r. Every issue required a major report on some high-tech area. One day Max asked whether she special the could doreport for the next issue. Because we were shorthanded she got the g reenon got light. the phone She and started interviewing people in the industry about the subje ct, say Gerry was LEDs. the owner, publisher, and founder of the paper. He was new to publishi ng andwas previously Max? Max. Gerry hadright. He exploded, owned Max an Max electronics knewdoesnt nothing firm. know about Whos anything the technology, doing about the electronics! LED butreport? she did a hefine asked. job. covered LED technology the way most journalists cover economics, war, technology She subject or any they dont understand. They interview those who are supposed to be experts soundbites. and look for They construct follow-up questions based on the grammatical structur e and the I see, experts syntax Mr. Carroll, ofstatement. so you really believe that the Jabberwock is a serious threat . But I understand you have also expressed concern about both the Jub Jub bird and the B andersnatch. there any possibility Is of domesticating either of these animals. What is it that youby counter So propose stringing these tothreats? together quotes and paraphrasing using the same nouns and verbs as your a journalist can write about almost anything while understanding very l sources, ittle. The catch is

that Be unreasonable. what you dont understand, you cant explain. So when the chairman of the Fed s ays,recently, did as he that he does not intend to expand the nations debt because he is go ing toelectronically, funds create the economically illiterate journalist can do nothing but nod his head scribble in his andnotepad. Better yet the Fed chairmans bite can be marked for use in a evenings that Economically package illiterate for news. viewers will listen and may actually believe that everyt hing is under control in the economy. Even if the journalist is well grounded in economi cs and the theories knows from all Keynes to the Austrian school to the monetarism of the Chicago she This school, to isdo awhat whenis problem shethat has is oneeasily minuterecognized, thirty to tell but not the easily story? solved. Education in has America failed. Mark Twain said, I have never let my schooling interfere with my educ ation. have more Weschooling in America that ever before, but education is in short suppl y. Part is problem of that the government schools, in other words most schools, put more emphas is on teacher than on teaching ability or subject knowledge. Albert Einstein, we certification re he not could Moreover alive the get today, underlying a job teaching premise, highusually school stated physicsas except everyone on ashould provisional have abasis. high s education, is more accurately expressed as everyone should have a high school di chool ploma. how many And of todays college grads have mastered basic mathematics and can read and Some well? indoctrination write of the root than problems to education. are obvious. Although Highthere schools aredevote many fine moreteachers, energy tothe edu establishment has focused more on self-serving matters than on the education of cational the nations

children. Be unreasonable. Teachers once felt that they had a calling, but many of todays teachers concerned College are more has with become salaries big business. and benefits Student thanloans with now children. are collectively larger than nations credit card debt which means that most of todays graduates will be in debt the their untilchildren after are grown. Not only do they lack the knowledge to understand many pressing of todays and intellectually challenging issues, they are likely to be far more f ocusedown their on heads keeping above water. And that will make them easy prey for political dem agogues will And then promise who there help arewith the corporations. those problems. Traditional media companies such as newspap and television networks are heavily dependent on corporate support in the form o ers f advertising. What the advertisers want and expect is an audience that comprises a good market products for their and services and an editorial environment that they perceive as a posit ive background which Although to all present editorial intheir enterprises messages. claim to be independent of advertising, very few can stick to that position when advertisers seem likely to drop them from their ad s chedules. side is that Thewhen flipa major corporation is committed to a certain political or phi losophical and has dollars position to spend, they will invariably find a willing voice to spread th eir there accept But message their isand dollars. light on the horizon. Because of the Internet, freedom of the press longer is no limited to those who own one. The April 30 assault on Osama bin Ladens com pound in is a case in point. The Obama administration assumed that if they were Pakistan successful taking out bin in Laden, they would need only announce their success and bask in un critical public

adulation. Be On unreasonable. the conclusion of the mission, all major media received notice that President would Obamabe speaking to the nation at 10:30 PM or shortly thereafter. The speech wo uldall on be major carried news channels as well as live feeds on the Internet. Television vie wers got the version and watched the President on their sets as he took credit f professional or had he a success personally that authorized and nurtured from the beginning of his administrati Internet video was less polished. On the Washington Post site, for example, a wi on. showed color bars and tones that were occasionally interrupted to reveal what wa ndow s going There was on. a long corridor in which a black man in workclothes was going back and to forth something tending or other. Then there was another break when a big man with a brown stepped up to the mike and the camera moved in for a closeup of his face from hi goatee s eyebrows the bridge of to his nose. The camera refocused and then pulled back for a head and Apparently shoulders satisfied, shot. the crew disappeared and was replaced with the color bars. Finally the President appeared and gave a speech with provided the naked fact th at binhad been killed. Much of the rest had to do what a good job had been done Laden by the team and assault the Adminstration. The President concluded with a line from the Pledge of Allegiance with the words under God strongly emphasized and then followed up with God Bless th e United States of America. Who can say whether this was an attempt to win over the right, religious a denial of the absurd claims that the President is a closet Muslim, or s imply the Within Presidents evidence hours the of own story sincerely startedheld to change. religious Thebeliefs. Navy Seals wanted to capture bin L aden he resisted but so they were forced to kill him. He and his compatriots displayed co wardice by using

women Be unreasonable. as human shields. Well not really. A woman, thought to be bin Ladens wife, ranhim of in and front was shot in the leg. Bin Laden, although unarmed, resisted and had to second be killed. thought On maybe he was armed, perhaps with a pistol or one of those AK47s t hat those all appearpictures in and videos. Anyway he was shot in the head. No, wait a minute shots it was intwo the head. Hang on. It was one shot in the head and another in the chest . But that single shot in the head left a huge gaping hole. On second hand it took piece off aof skull. Of course entry wounds tend to be small. Its the exit wounds crea ted as the expanded bullet leaves the victims body that are large. Could bin Laden have been back But shot he of in is the the definitely head? Aha, dead see! since The this coward was was confirmed trying to byrun DNAaway. testing and computeriz facial recognition technology. Of course there have been rumors that some of bin ed videos Ladens used past doubles. I guess this super reliable facial recognition technology w as not back then. available Its good to know that DNA testing has now become so fast and reliable that in done it just can be a few hours. We can expect to see defense attorneys in future trial s askfor 10AM judges DNA tests at and the judge will order a recess so the test can be done and reviewed Suppose they can there by bethe are court questions after about lunch.the DNA samples, we can also get new ones. Oop s, the body is at the bottom of the ocean. Nobody is trying to cover up anything is jus t that, for respect out Mr. of bin Laden, the government wanted to show the utmost respect for his religious faith which requires that Muslims be buried within 24 hours. By doing the job in we about showed 4 hours added respect to Islam. Initially it seemed that he was simply dumped off the helicopter, but with a day or so, someone came up with a nice video of someone r eceiving a

proper Be unreasonable. burial at sea, suitably wrapped in a white shroud with some kind of naval in By honor(?) attendance. Tuesday guard morning, less than 36 hours after the event, the rumors began to circ ulate the Internet. on Bin Laden died of renal failure years ago; the Seals killed a doub le. Although mission was based the on information that the administration first had eight months ago,delayed was the mission until after Obama had declared his candidacy for reelection. Or perh aps Laden, bin it really butwas he had played no role other than a symbolic one for years. He cou ldnt have managed any terrorist groups anyway since he had no phones and no Internet conne Then there was but ction. grandchildren, the lets equally not brave go there. mission The that continuing took outstory Muammar of Al Qadaffis Qaeda and three intern terrorism goes on, but with a difference. The time is past when governments or c ational orporations media Fred Friendly giantsor can answered totally that control question the more news.than So what 40 years should ago. journalists Speaking at do?Columbi a University to audience of students interested in journalistic careers, he was as ked what single Reflecting most was for important the only a moment, advice he hecould gave a give succinct to thetwo students word answer: in the Be audience. unreasonable .