Former NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw moderated a panel of experts seeking to untangle the news media's rapidly changing role in American politics during the third annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism yesterday.
The event brought Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, New York Times Magazine political reporter Matt Bai (A '90) and Eric Fehrnstrom, the press secretary for ex-presidential candidate and former Governor Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), to the Cabot Auditorium. The group discussed the topic "Noise vs. News: The State of Political Coverage."
The panelists grappled with questions about the benefits and drawbacks of political blogs and the constant nature of news dissemination in the current presidential election, which Brokaw called the most important one since 1968.
"You are getting information faster, you're getting it from a wider variety of sources, you're getting it from a wider variety of perspectives and all of that is an offshoot of the online world," Bai said.
Bai said the New York Times, like the news media as a whole, has become a largely Web-driven enterprise that uses the Internet to constantly distribute more information than ever before.
He said that this raises concerns because the quickened pace of the news cycle compels journalists to sacrifice historical and societal context in their coverage. Another concern, he added, is that younger and more inexperienced journalists do not have the time to educate themselves.
"It does mean we lose a great deal of institutional knowledge that we're not necessarily replacing," Bai said.
Fehrnstrom said that the information age has created "one constant deadline" in in-depth reporting, as political speeches get posted on the Internet almost immediately after completion and news outlets must scramble to be among the first to report on them.
"It's just one permanent drone of coverage, and it's changed the job of the reporter," Fehrnstrom said, explaining that the concept of a 6:00 deadline for newspaper journalists has disappeared. "They're constantly on deadline."
Fehrnstrom, a former reporter for the Boston Herald, noted that the integration of different forms of media has forced traditional journalists to learn a broad variety of skills.
"The reporter has become much more of a renaissance person in a way: a blogger, a radio reporter, a TV interviewer and, of course, they have print responsibilities as well," Fehrnstrom said.
The discussion also focused on the increased amount of public scrutiny presidential candidates and politicians face today, as any comment they make could end up on YouTube.com or a political blog. Some say this constant probing is detrimental and unfair, but Noonan, a former speechwriter for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, asserted that presidential candidates should expect to face such tough scrutiny.
"I think I belong to the school that says it's pretty much all fair game," Noonan said. "If you're running for president you're running for the most powerful job on the planet. It is an intensely public act. You have to expect people will be taking pictures or recording or taking notes when you speak."
Bai added that those candidates who truly believe in their own cause will be prepared to deal with the harsh media atmosphere. "They don't whine about it. They act like adults, they take their hits and they go out and they concentrate and know their argument is the best one because, at the end of the day, they believe it," Bai said.
Fehrnstrom said that Web sites like YouTube have turned everyday citizens into reporters, bypassing the ethical filters that traditional news sources employ.
"That's how a lot of stories germinate now is through YouTube and people talking about what they see," Fehrnstrom said.
He added that reporters and mainstream media sources often miss scoops that get disseminated on the Internet. The major news providers then pick up the stories and give them greater exposure.
Noonan expressed concerns that the new journalistic landscape has lowered the stature of presidential candidates, other major politicians and their respective offices.
"When it is so easy to reach a president or a presidential candidate they become flatter," Noonan said. "They become less important. They perhaps think of themselves of rather less importance."
Brokaw added that Americans expect their politicians to be more responsive in the newer era. Everyday citizens "expect to have access in a way because they have it in the rest of their lives. Why shouldn't they have it with their presidential candidates?"
Bai said that the presence of more blogs and other news outlets has moved traditional media from the era of persuasion, as he called it, to the era of confirmation. He said that voters do not turn to his 8,000-word investigative articles to help them determine their political views, but rather for reinforcement of preconceived ideas.
"Now they pick it up and they know how they feel, and if in 200 words it doesn't immediately validate their worldview, they dismiss it because they've got 200 Web sites that will tell them the world is exactly the way they thought it was yesterday," Bai said.
During the question-and-answer session that followed the Brokaw-led discussion, one audience member asked if any of today's presidential candidates could ever reach the level of reverence that our most beloved presidents attained.
Noonan responded that she doesn't believe any of today's politicians can be grouped in the same category as Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and George Washington.
"Do the people on the scene now running for office in America seem big and seem towering and seem inspiring and equally worthy of respect? No, I can't say," Noonan said.
She countered her own opinion, though, saying, "I'm always hoping that if it were 1792 and I were alive and John Adams walked by and Tom Jefferson [passed] that I would look at them and say, 'Those bums. Where are the giants?'"
The forum was co-sponsored by the Communications and Media Studies Program, the Fletcher School's Edward R. Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy and the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service.
