The Bookworm: Breaking the News

Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy by James Fallows. 337 pages. Vintage Books. 1996.

Now TV pundits are the best-paid and best-known representatives of the journalist’s craft. Their work makes it harder, rather than easier, to cope with the nation’s problems, because of their relentless emphasis on discord, prediction, and political spin. And it undermines the entire process of journalism, by suggesting that it should be viewed as a sideshow, most successful when it draws gawkers into the tent.

Believe it or not, I read more during this book cycle than I have since I stopped taking the bus to work. Two weeks ago I shifted my runs and walks to the morning, freeing two evening hours. Between 5 and 7 pm, I try to read 30 pages if I am not busy. After crawling my way through the first 50 or so pages of Breaking the News, I was able to devour the rest in respectable chunks.

Breaking is James Fallows effort to deconstruct America’s Fourth Establishment, showing readers how, as the subtitle alludes, the media make it harder for Americans to become well-informed and equipped to solve our collective problems. Fallows explains how the rise of bottom-line motivated news, political talk shows and punditry, a lucrative lecture circuit, favoritism, a star or “bigfoot” system, and a focus on “horserace” politics has compromised the public’s ability and willingness to participate in self-government.

The American press is (or was, since this was published in 1996) at a crossroads, Fallows writes. Does it continue down the path of degradation and alienation, or does it face its problems head-on and reform itself to once again provide the public information, explanation, and offer a forum for thoughtful debate and resolution?

I bought Breaking at Book-Off, a used bookstore in the Westminster Mall that Zee German told me about. (He referred to the Westminster Mall as “the ghetto mall.” Relative to other parts of Orange County, I suppose it can be considered ghetto, but it is far from being a dead mall or in a ghetto. It was my mall of preference since it was nearby, but I rarely went there; I dislike malls in general.) Book-Off impressed me, though; I was doubtful the OC was home to any real bookstores. However, the selection painted a depressing, but unsurprising, picture of the county’s reading habits, interests, and general social and political ideology. A surprisingly large proportion of the books at Book-Off could be classified as Christian literature, popular romance, or science fiction. Everything else fell in a mélange of self-help/motivational books, business strategies, war histories, outdated travel guides, and the kind of political punditry Fallows bemoans. As I browsed the shelves, I wondered if anyone in the OC read anything of true substance. I found, however, a few gems, and Breaking was the one I decided to buy. It cost a buck.

Breaking piqued my interest as a former newspaper reporter. Just as I am a voting romantic, I am also guilty of being a journalism purist. I crave thorough, balanced, informative, unsensational, and well-written reporting. It is the reason why I never watch the corporate news networks; I cannot stand the acrimony and senseless bickering television nurtures. It is self-evident that kind of “journalism” does not promote thoughtful discussion to help us solve our most pressing national problems. It is ratings-grabbing conflict and entertainment geared toward target audiences, and Fallows points to it as the most egregious example of how the American media has failed the general public. Television news fosters a culture of personality, awards anyone who can spew the cleverest sound bite regardless of factuality, and cares little about providing viewers anything informative or useful.

It was sad to read Fallows biting criticism of the media 14 years after Breaking was first published; much of what he feared and dreaded in 1996 is reality in 2010. Big money has transformed news into another consumer product to be marketed and bought, much like Pop-Tarts. The “right” and “wrong” dichotomy popularized by pundits has polarized discussions and driven our political system into a partisan wall. People choose the version of the news best suiting their beliefs and prefer not to hear what else is being said or thought. Breaking predates the launching of both Fox News Channel and MSNBC, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and the insanity of 9/11 and the Iraq War, so I wonder what Fallows would say about the media undermining democracy now. It is a scary thought.

At the end, Fallows highlights a movement called “public journalism,” in which journalists engage the public in an effort to shape news coverage and encourage civic engagement. Instead of reporting on the petty arguments and mudslinging of political campaigns (“horserace” politics), reporters press candidates about the issues voters are most concerned about or write in-depth about the solutions candidates are proposing. It is not a novel concept — it is truly journalism, Fallows argues — but it sadly has not revolutionized the media in this country.

As a product of the mid-‘90s, the pop-cultural and political references are both somewhat nostalgic (for those of us coming of age during the decade) and antiquated. Mentions of Bob Dole, Kato Kaelin, and the Whitewater scandal ring a familiar bell, but those Fallows makes to Gennifer Flowers, a House check kiting scandal in 1993, and Nannygate are now long forgotten skeletons stuffed in the closet of American history.

Overall, Breaking is not a bad read. As a longtime journalist, Fallows is insightful and informed, and his criticisms are well-founded.

New words I learned: All definitions courtesy of my MacBook dictionary. Trepan: “a trephine (hole saw) used by surgeons for perforating the skull.” Aphorism: “a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’” Supercilious: “behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others” Excoriate: “censure or criticize severely.” Enfeeble: “make weak or feeble.” Amortize: “reduce or extinguish (a debt) by money regularly put aside.” Propinquity: “the state of being close to someone or something; proximity.” Bon mot (French for “good word”): “a witty remark.” Incipient: “in an initial stage; beginning to happen or develop.” Messrs.: “used as a title to refer formally to more than one man simultaneously, or in names of companies.” Balkanize: “divide (a region or body) into smaller mutually hostile states or groups.” Teleology: “the explanation of phenomena by the purpose they serve rather than by postulated causes.” Manqué: “having failed to become what one might have been; unfulfilled.”