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How Monica Helped Bring Down the Mainstream Media
The Monica Lewinsky scandal left a stain on the U.S. mainstream media that will never come off, argues Steve Boriss. When Americans witnessed journalistic elites slithering out of their responsibility to call immoral behavior by its name exactly a decade ago, they were never trusted again.
The Monica Lewinsky affair is a root cause of the recent, dramatic losses in Old Media audiences, and a key reason they may never reemerge as leading New Media brands. A look at history shows us why.
News defines communities: News outlets throughout history have provided us with a sense of community and shared values, according to NYU’s Mitchell Stephens. News of legal violations reinforces our understanding of acceptable behaviors. News of the out-of-the-ordinary strengthens our consensus on what qualifies as ordinary. What is considered “newsworthy” tells us what is important and valued. “Each shared perception [and] each shared reaction… reawakens a sense of shared destiny and shared purpose,” Stephens wrote.
Since America’s people have always been diverse, we have typically been able to choose among many news communities. In his 1835 book Democracy in America, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at how our newspapers drew together communities of the like-minded, organizing them into “associations” that could impact political events. This was true until recent decades, when major metropolitan areas still had several newspapers. Some were liberal, some conservative. Some focused on business, others on gossip. Some were for the upscale, others for the downscale. Each time we purchased a paper, we renewed our membership in a community that shared our tastes and values.
But in recent decades, we have all been forced into the same news community, and not by choice. Few now live in cities served by more than one daily newspaper, all of which tend to offer the same set of national and international stories. This has happened largely because of the economics of newspapers, the impact of TV news, and the dominance of a network of newspapers that, under the banner of the “Associated Press,” operate as a competition-suppressing cartel. The single set of national stories we now receive are hatched each night in a front-page-coordinating phone call between the New York Times and Washington Post, which is then dutifully copied by other outlets.
Watergate: A triumph of community: Watergate was a watershed moment for modern journalism. Even though by then we had already been involuntarily forced into a single news community, and even though a landslide majority had reelected President Nixon just two years earlier, we still all shared a belief that wiretapping an opponent’s campaign offices and covering up the crime were wrong. Our nation applauded journalists’ efforts to oust Nixon.
Yet the news media misread our appreciation for their heroic efforts. We were glad they had branded something wrong that a vast majority of us believed to be wrong. Also, we were glad they had righted that wrong. However, we were not prepared to give them carte blanche to follow their own values or develop a cynicism that held our leaders and cherished institutions to low expectations. The seeds of the Old Media’s demise had been planted.
Monicagate: The community ruptures: It is hard to recapture the shock in America when this totally unprecedented news broke. A married president while in office had an affair with a 22-year-old intern under his charge. In less than ten years, we had gone from a president who would not take his jacket off in the Oval Office to one who could not keep his zipper up.
Unlike Watergate, journalists failed to do something that may now prove fatal to the Old Media. They never clearly condemned the president’s sexual relations as “wrong.” Nor that Clinton lied to them about it. Nor the credible allegations made by Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broaddrick that Clinton may have engaged in violations ranging from sexual harassment to rape. These were reported as if they were just political squabbles, typically with one side saying it was just about sex and the other side dismissed as “Clinton-haters” by James Carville and a “war room” that the media seemed to respect, if not celebrate.
The significant number of Americans to whom it was self-evident that Clinton’s behavior was a previously unthinkable outrage promptly revoked their membership in an Old Media that clearly did not share their values. According to the Pew Research Center, those who believed news organizations were “immoral” tripled from 13% to 38% – a level it has maintained since, dipping momentarily only in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when the media did share the values of a united America.
Now that news is converging onto the internet, which will provide a multitude of “news associations,” the Old Media outlets will likely never be able to reunite us in a single news community with shared values. Certainly, not those Americans who are convinced they sold their soul to a devil with a blue dress on.
Steve Boriss blogs at The Future of News. He works for Washington University in St. Louis, where he is Associate Director of the Center for the Application of Information Technology (CAIT) and teaches a class called “The Future of News.”
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33 Comments
1. WR Jonas:Well said Mr. Boriss and in my opinion
Jan 16, 2008 - 6:31 am 2. Ennis:correctly analyzed.
I began following politics in the Truman/Dewey era and if one notices the direction of the MSM it is unarguably to the left. No doubt and no contest. They will occasionally throw a deke to the right to create the semblance of objectivity. But the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal rendered everything afterward as deliberately and un equivocally biased.
Today any story carrying an AP or NYTNS is labeled before the copy is printed: “This article is approved by your Democratic Party.”
Monica may have started it, the 2000 election may have gotten the ball rolling but what really killed the MSM in my mind happened at approximately 10:20am CT on 9-11-01. That is when I heard Peter Jennings first inject the now so familiar MSM/LLL political agitprop and spin into a national emergency.
That was the last day I ever watched a MSM news program. 5 years later I canceled my DishTV subscription and quit watching TV altogether
Jan 16, 2008 - 7:48 am 3. Mike Perry:This is a marvelous article. I’d only add one comment. It wasn’t just Monicagate. It was the enormous contrast between how the allegations against Justice Thomas were handled and how, just a few years later, Clinton’s well-substantiated and much worse behavior was handled.
Both were long-term affairs in which the deep, core values of the press came out. And both demonstrate, in my mind beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the mainstream media in this country isn’t to be trusted. It isn’t bias or slated, it’s bigoted.
–Michael W. Perry, Inkling Books, Seattle
Editor of The School of Journalism by Joseph Pulitzer.
Jan 16, 2008 - 8:31 am 4. Redball6:Could not agree more. Very perceptive.
Keep writing please!
Jan 16, 2008 - 8:47 am 5. John Moore:The MSM still have a lot of power in setting the narrative.
During 2004, Vietnam vets encountered this first hand in attempting to get the truth about John Kerry into the national consciousness. If it were left to the MSM, it would never have happened. The MSM stonewalled, they lied, and they constructed fantasy narratives (e.g. the Swift Boat vets were Karl Rove operatives), and in general did their best to suppress any information that the Democrats had nominated a phony and a traitor; instead, they focused their energies on tracking down George Bush’s dentist. They totally discredited themselves by their blatant agenda-driven bias in this affair.
This struggle is now documented in a book by Scott Swett, who was at the core of the movement, available at the book’s web site: “To Set The Record Straight”. There, you will find almost incredible stories of MSM misdeeds, and the ultimately succesful grass-roots efforts to defeated this powerful malevolence.
Jan 16, 2008 - 9:31 am 6. David Thomson:“Our nation applauded journalists’ efforts to oust Nixon.”
Americans during that era were unaware that the Democrats committed similar outrages. Richard Nixon was guilty of the number one crime according to the leftist media: he was a Republican! Ben Bradlee would have never allowed his personal friend John F. Kennedy to be severely damaged by two cub reporters employed by his newspaper.
Jan 16, 2008 - 10:00 am 7. Kurt:Monicagate may have given this shift a lot more momentum, but the maudlin coverage of Princess Diana’s death a few months before should have alerted many people to the fact that there was clearly something wrong in mainstream media land. (Likewise, the coverage of the death of JFK, Jr. in 1999 further exposed the media’s bias.)
Jan 16, 2008 - 10:06 am 8. Boris:This analysis is quite a stretch. The news media is supposed to report on what happens, not tell people what’s wrong or right.
And then Boriss goes here: “Nor the credible allegations made by…Kathleen Willey…”
I guess you’ll believe any allegations as long they impugn an enemy. Oh, well.
Jan 16, 2008 - 10:47 am 9. OldSarg:Dead on!
Jan 16, 2008 - 11:07 am 10. Steve Boriss:Boris, C’mon, you’re making the rest of us whose names start with ‘Boris’ look bad
Seriously, there is no such thing as “reporting what happens.” There are an infinite number of stories that can be reported. The news stories and angles that the news media choose tell us what THEY think is newsworthy and reflect their bias (and bias is unavoidable, incidentally). Why shouldn’t we believe Kathleen Willey? She’s now written an entire book about it. More to the point, why shouldn’t we believe Juanita Broaddrick, a seemingly decent middle-aged woman who claimed that Bill Clinton raped her, and who broke down in tears in her interview with Lisa Myers on Dateline NBC (if someone out there can find this pre-YouTube video on the web, please post it so Boris and others may see it). By accusing me of trying to “impugn the enemy,” you are showing yourself to be as heartless and immoral as the mainstream media. Isn’t rape one of the most horrific crimes there is? These are people’s lives here. This is not a game. Compassion and morality are in order.
Jan 16, 2008 - 11:07 am 11. TallDave:You missed the bigger point that FDR had not that long ago committed far more egregious sins in the same vein, bugging not just his political rivals but also the news media, and in fact threatened the media with gov’t takeover.
Also, grammar error in the title graf:
“When Americans witnessed journalistic elites slithered out of their responsibility” — s/b “slithering,” or changed “witnessed” to “watched as”
Otherwise, not bad.
Jan 16, 2008 - 11:40 am 12. Dr. Kenneth Noisewater:“The Monica Lewinsky scandal left a stain on the U.S. mainstream media that will never come off”
That’s not the only stubborn stain that got left behind….
HEYO!!!!
Jan 16, 2008 - 12:01 pm 13. Boris:“Why shouldn’t we believe Kathleen Willey?”
Well, she admitted to lying to the FBI, for one. Independent counsel Robert Ray concluded that her testimony in the Paula Jones case differed from her testimony to the grand jury. Given those facts, how can you continue to maintain she is credible?
Juanita Broaddrick has similar credibility issues, having signed a sworn affidavit denying the rumors of Clinton’s alleged assault were true. Crying on television is not an indication of someone’s credibility.
“you are showing yourself to be as heartless and immoral as the mainstream media. Isn’t rape one of the most horrific crimes there is? These are people’s lives here. This is not a game. Compassion and morality are in order.”
Oh, so I don’t believe someone who is an admitted liar and whose story has changed and now I’m somehow guilty of downplaying the seriousness of rape. That’s a nice rhetorical game. It is unfortunately true that false accusations of rape are made, especially against high profile celebrities. The media should tread very carefully in these situations.
Did you simply not know about Willey and Broaddrick’s credibility issues or does your ideological bias allow you to ignore them?
Jan 16, 2008 - 12:03 pm 14. Ralph Phelan:The MSM still have a lot of power in setting the narrative.
During 2004, Vietnam vets encountered this first hand in attempting to get the truth about John Kerry into the national consciousness.
We’ll see if they’re as successful at ignoring Obama’s wingnut “spiritual advisor.”
Jan 16, 2008 - 12:36 pm 15. Steve Boriss:Boris, In the future of news, we will both be happy. I’ll get to choose the news outlets that I trust and share values with. You’ll do the same. And, we can debate. And if you choose to believe the word of a President who cheated on his wife, had sex with someone’s daughter during her internship, and was convicted of lying before a grand jury instead of these women, it will be sorted out in a freewheeling marketplace of ideas.
Jan 16, 2008 - 12:45 pm 16. Ralph Phelan:John Moore :
The MSM still have a lot of power in setting the narrative.
During 2004, Vietnam vets encountered this first hand in attempting to get the truth about John Kerry into the national consciousness.
We’ll see if they still have as much power by whether they successfully ignore the story of Obama’s wingnut “spiritual advisor.”
Jan 16, 2008 - 12:53 pm 17. Denny:Nice piece of analysis!
Jan 16, 2008 - 1:37 pm 18. George B:Journalism is dead. Technological changes allow individuals direct access to information that bypasses the liberal arts major types that write about things that they don’t understand. As an example, once blog readers had access to images of the Bush Texas National Guard memos, experts in typewriter fonts quickly realized that the memos were fakes. CBS journalists writing about the memos didn’t catch the problem, but expert readers did.
In the specific case of President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, the physical evidence of President Clinton’s semen on Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress proved that he had, at best, been extremely misleading in his grand jury testimony. Slick Willy the lawyer was able to successfully argue the meaning of the word “is”, but the whole world knows the result of the genetic testing.
Jan 16, 2008 - 2:10 pm 19. Boris:“And if you choose to believe the word of a President who cheated on his wife, had sex with someone’s daughter during her internship, and was convicted of lying before a grand jury instead of these women,”
I don’t “believe the word” of Clinton. But Clinton being a liar does not make Willey and Braddrick credible, and they are not.
Jan 16, 2008 - 2:36 pm 20. william:The alleged activities of Justice Thomas made him unfit to be a Supreme Court Justice. The proven activities of President Clinton are his own affair. To disapprove of the activities of Thomas shows that you “get it”. To disapprove of the activities of President Clinton demonstrates the residual Puritanism that cripples Americans and expecially Republicans. Who can argue with such self evident truths?
Jan 16, 2008 - 4:14 pm 21. Mark:For the umpteen millionth time, this isn’t about the sex! What Clinton did prior to the court testimony is not what matters, it’s the fact that he lied about it under oath.
His conduct with his interns is deplorable, IMO, but that is all it is, my opinion. Where it stopped being just my opinion is when he lied about it on the stand.
Jan 16, 2008 - 5:30 pm 22. Steve Boriss:William, Are you referring to Clarence Thomas allegedly telling Anita Hill in jest that there was a public hair on her Coke can? And even if true, you think that THIS is equivalent to a credible accusation of rape? How could you consider yourself a moral person with such beliefs?
Jan 16, 2008 - 5:37 pm 23. Amphipolis:I love the article, I wish it were true, but I believe the prediction of old media demise is greatly exaggerated.
The news networks, major newspapers, and CNN still dominate the news. Most people rely on them without much question. That’s reality.
Jan 16, 2008 - 6:06 pm 24. Brian Dirks:The only reason the stain became visible was because the fledgling New Media told America about it. The MSM was busy burying it. There would have been no stain if left to the MSM. The whole mess would have been below the radar. The MSM could have stopped the New Media in the crib by reporting what Drudge and Rush were reporting. Didn’t happen then, ain’t gonna happen now. How many other stories were buried by the MSM? John Kennedy sleeping with a German spy to mention a few? Communists employed in the Truman and FDR administrations as documented in the Venona Papers. Why didn’t Walter Cronkite report the Tet offensive as a victory for the US which it was,instead of defeat. His later speeches show his anti war underware. Does it actually go clear back to the first lynching by the brand new Video Media when they destroyed McCarthy the Commie hunter, who was vindicated by those Venona Papers incedently? He unfortunately scared the Hollywood conservatives silent which was an sad byproduct of his hunt for Sean Penn’s father but still he was on the right trail as history has proven.
The entertaining part of the whole MSM show these days is watching this Emperor walk by with out clothing.
Jan 16, 2008 - 6:19 pm 25. bour3:The exact moment where MSM lost its credibility that can be spoken about is not the real moment.
It’s highly personal.
Newspapers are not needed for crossword puzzles, so there goes their one single remaining grace. On the other hand, I used quite a lot of it for packing material when I moved. Saved on bubble-wrap but had to scrub my hands to get off the ink. I suppose they could save on ink by getting into the bird-cage liner business.
Jan 16, 2008 - 7:27 pm 26. Allison:Steve,
Couldn’t you tell that William was joking?
Jan 16, 2008 - 9:23 pm 27. Steve Boriss:Allison, William, In re-reading William’s post, I am going to take Allison’s word for it. So, sorry William if you were joking. But, trust me, I could show you a stack of e-mails that would give you good reason to understand why I assumed you were not.
Jan 16, 2008 - 11:44 pm 28. Amphipolis:The analysis is good. There is a trend of media diversification into the new media outlets. There have been spectacular successes in stopping media disinformation. People don’t trust the MSM like they did in the past.
However, most people still do. There have been hundreds of MSM outrages that have not gotten traction, because the MSM still controls the megaphone. They can spin the news as much as ever. Ask yourselves this – are the opinions of the people you interact with formed by the MSM? The answer for me would be a resounding yes. The influence of the MSM is not what it was, but it is still predominant. And then there is the liberal educational establishment that makes sure our young people don’t miss the message.
Fox is a major disappointment. Not much thoughtful debate, mostly people yelling at each other between coverage of missing blondes.
Jan 17, 2008 - 6:34 am 29. william:Alison, Steve Boriss: My post was meant to be somewhere between sarcasm and tragic irony. Here are a few more self-evident truths: If Harry Reid is a Mormon that is his own business and the prior prejudiced beliefs of the Mormon faith have no bearing on his duties as Majority Leader of the Senate. If Mitt Romney (or any other Republican Mormon) runs for public office, the past beliefs of the Mormons deserve to be examined in excruciating detail. If a utility infielder, second rate newscaster, or third tier comedian makes ten or twenty times more than his peer in the fifties, that is the free market in action. If a corporate executive, acting from the same wellspring of greed and opportunity, overfeeds at the trough, that is an example of why the markets need regulating. Some say hypocrisy, but really they are self evident truths.
Jan 17, 2008 - 8:19 am 30. Steve Boriss:William, That is all correct. So now, what should be done about it? In the first phase, it was helpful to point out this bias, and the public now universally understands that it exists (2/3 of the public believes it). The next phase in my view is not to hold mainstream media to their own standard of objectivity, because it is an impossible standard. Every choice of what is newsworthy represents bias. Instead, we should recognize that bias is not a four-letter word — it is a good thing. America is built upon the opinions of the people to determine the consent of the governed. So the solution is encouraging the Internet to replace mainstream media with a multitude of voices competing in a freewheeling marketplace of ideas.
Jan 17, 2008 - 9:20 am 31. william:In Troy, the movie version of the Iliad, Brad Pitt plays the part of Achilles. I cannot remember who plays Hector. On Amazon, there are over 100,000 titles devoted to Napoleon. Wellington was demonstrably a better general and greater statesman. There are about 10,000 titles about him on the Amazon list. Artists and intellectuals are bored by Coolidge and excited by Lenin. Fairly late in life I have learned to be distrustful of their witness. They are more attracted to glory than to decency. Well, Washington and Wellington were more enamored of the example of Cincinattus than that of Caesar, and Eisenhower outranked Patton. Thank God, that so many American leaders have been unimaginative. Artistic talent is inversely proportional to political maturity.
Jan 17, 2008 - 10:29 am 32. Brian H:“So the solution is encouraging the Internet to replace mainstream media with a multitude of voices competing in a freewheeling marketplace of ideas.”
For ideas, fine. But for “news” — i.e., data about what is happening — the Internet is parasitic on the Formerly Mainstream Media, with a few exceptions like Yon and Totten and others.
Who pays? Who does the daily slogging?
Maybe this tension and balance between commercial newsers and amateur responders etc. is as good as it gets.
William;
Jan 20, 2008 - 2:08 pm 33. Al:Offered without comment or extrapolation: Vividness of imagination is a good predictor of how readily and deeply one can be hypnotized.
Watch Evan Sayet’s talk called “HOW MODERN LIBERALS THINK”.
You’ll see why these people are like they are. It’s very good. I’ve watched parts of it many times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c
You’ll need some quiet time and make sure you watch the Q&A at the end.
Jan 21, 2008 - 8:47 pm