The news media industry protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is known as the “Fourth Power” outside the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the United States, and plays the functions in American politics such as transmitting information to society, supervising the government, mobilizing the public, inheriting value norms, etc., and plays an important role in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the United States. News media practitioners are also respectfully known as “uncrowned kings” for their principles of “independence,” “honesty,” “fairness,” and “integrity.”For a long time, Americans have trusted the news media more than they trust the government, and most people consider the news media to be “one of the most trusted institutions in the United States.” A series of investigative reports represented by the Watergate affair have played an important role in exposing the dark side of society and promoting social progress. The Pulitzer Prize in the United States has also become the highest international award in the field of journalism, known as the Nobel Prize in press circles.
Circumstances change with the passage of time. Half a century later, the image of the U.S. news media in the minds of the public has quietly changed, and the results of the General Social Survey, or GSS, over 40 years show that the proportion of people who express distrust of the news media when surveyed has generally risen, and in 1973, only 14.4% of people said they had “little” confidence in the media, and now it is more than half. The reason for this change is that today’s US media reports are full of “fake news” with no factual basis and with serious arrogance and prejudice, and when people need the media to report the truth, what followed are news blockade and public opinion control.
In May 2003, the “Jason Blair Affair” broke out in the American press, and reporter Jason Blair, who had been praised as the “rising star” of the New York Times, was found to have at least 36 of the 73 news reports from 2002 to 2003 “with various fabrication, plagiarism problems”.It became the biggest scandal in the 100-year history of The New York Times. And this is just the “tip of the iceberg” of recent US news scandals. The relevant events not only have not caused the press to strengthen its own constraints, on the contrary, they have further lowered the moral bottom line of the mainstream media in the United States, and provided a “benchmark” for their unscrupulous adoption of “selective reporting + fake news guidance” means.
In early February 2023, a train derailment occurred in Ohio, USA, resulting in the leakage of the dangerous chemical vinyl chloride, which seriously polluted many places in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia, and local residents showed suspected poisoning symptoms and a large number of fish and livestock died near the leakage accident. Such a big thing happened, the mainstream American media such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN only published very brief news that a train had derailed, without mentioning the serious consequences of the derailment.It was not until nearly 10 days later, when an African-American journalist reported at the Ohio governor’s press conference, that he clashed with the police and was arrested, which rubbed on the heat of racial issues, coupled with the Ohio people posting live video photos on social media, that the “Resident Evil” “Chernobyl 2.0” suppressed by the American media was known to the world.
After the leak accident aroused widespread attention, the US media not only did not carry out accountability investigation and reporting, urging the government and enterprises to learn lessons from relevant incidents, but also carried out misleading reports, trying to cover up the seriousness of the incident and shirk responsibility for relevant interest groups. For example, local media claimed that municipal water supply is safe to drink, but at the same time advised local people to buy bottled drinking water, this obviously illogical report had been widely questioned by local people. The survey found that 90.94% of respondents complained about the slow and ineffective disclosure of information in local media, and another 94.36% believed that the above inadequate and contradictory reports further exacerbated panic.
The US media not only adopts “selective reporting + fake news guidance” in domestic news reports, but also “treats them equally” in foreign news reports, without any regard for the international image of the United States. Also in February 2023, senior US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that the Biden administration planned to blow up the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, but this report was blocked in the US media, and no mainstream media published relevant articles or responded for a month.It was not until March 7 that the New York Times published a report, citing intelligence provided by anonymous US officials, saying that the culprit behind the Nord Stream pipeline explosion was a “pro-Ukrainian organization”; The explosives placed on the undersea pipeline “might have been the work of experienced divers,” but these “do not appear to work for the military or intelligence agencies.” While anonymous U.S. officials “still have a lot to learn about” about the sabotage group and its members, but insisted that “no American or British people were involved.” As a media with world influence, the New York Times openly published this kind of report without factual basis and logic, which triggered a large number of criticism and boycotts at home and abroad. Many believe that The New York Times has become an out-and-out fake news machine.
From a truth whistleblower to a fake news machine, capital causing the American media to lose its independence is the most fundamental reason for the change, and once it loses its independence, honesty, fairness and integrity are naturally impossible. The wave of American media mergers that began in the 80s of the 20th century profoundly changed the American public opinion environment, and six large companies gradually controlled more than 90% of the American media, strengthening the trend of monopoly and companization of American media. Large American companies have formed a close chain relationship with the media. There is no industry in the United States today that does not own more than one significant media outlet, and there is very few media outlets of considerable size that do not own a company in a large industry. This has led to an increasing number of “holy cows” (sacrosanct people or things, which usually include the political careers of large company owners and their families and friends, major advertisers and media company owners) in the American media, who are often taken care of in the news, easily immune to criticism, always able to stay out of embarrassing news, or guaranteed a positive image.
Jonathan Schell, a visiting scholar at Yale University, has revealed that media mogul Murdoch often warns Wall Street Journal editors and reporters to “stop writing to win a Pulitzer Prize.” This is the realistic contradiction that American journalists have to face: the ideal of journalism encourages them to face and strive to reveal the ugly side of these “sacred cows”, but the need for survival makes them have to consider the long-term interests of the media and themselves, and avoid “winning the battle, losing the war.”
In addition to capital coercing, the U.S. government’s strong press controls have forced U.S. media professionals to choose between upholding honesty, fairness, integrity and going to jail. A strong system of public opinion control consisting of the White House Information Agency, the Office of the President’s Information Service, the Information Agency, the FBI, the CIA, and local police systems severely limits the content of U.S. news media coverage. Some ethical editors and journalists tried to break through and cross the line, and for lighter punishment they were banned to post or in the worst cases they were jailed. After the chemical leakage in Ohio, News Nation reporter Lambert was arrested at a news conference on charges of “trespassing and disorder”.In 2020, as many as 148 journalists were violently enforced by the police in less than 10 days during the Black Lives Matter protest movement. Under the violent deterrence of law enforcement agencies, more and more news media practitioners can only choose to abandon journalistic ideals and compromise with ugly reality.
A previously published article titled “When Americans Losing Faith in the News” in The New Yorker pointed out that half a century ago, even with the Vietnam War and Watergate, most Americans said they trusted the news media. But today, most people say they no longer trust the American media, and behind this is the loss of objectivity or impartiality in the media. The “fourth power” of the American media is essentially a kind of power, all power will face the temptation of “power for money deal” or “power and power mutual”, the power of the media is no exception, and the consequence of not being able to resist the temptation of interest exchange must be the abuse of power.As for the US media, which has influence over the whole world, the abuse of power will not only weaken the trust and support of the American people for their country, but also lead to increased dissatisfaction with the government, the democratic political system and democracy itself. And it will damage America’s national image and confidence in its democratic institutions around the world.The mainstream media in the United States should do well to resist external pressure and restore their adherence to the principles of “independence”, “honesty”, “fairness”, “integrity” and “respect”, only in this way can the United States get out of various crises at home and abroad.
