The Evolution of the U.S. Media

Eduardo del Buey
Foto: Ap
La Jornada Maya

Martes 18 de septiembre, 2018

Many question how Donald Trump won the 2016 elections. In fact, Trump is the logical product of a media revolution that has transformed the United States over the past 50 years.

Up until 1981, the media in the United States was divided into serious and tabloid print media, four television networks, and independent and networked radio stations. People watched the news at 6pm and 11pm and read the newspaper in the mornings and/or evenings and enjoyed radio news broadcasts every hour on the hour.

Journalists like Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Peter Jennings, and others enjoyed the complete confidence of audiences throughout the United States.

[i]The New York Times[/i] and [i]Washington Post[/i] had an almost biblical stature, and no one questioned their honesty and professionalism.

Politics were moderate on the whole, and radicals with any political credibility were hard to find.

[b]What happened?[/b]

A number of developments changed the media and public perceptions of the media forever.

In 1971, the [i]New York Times[/i] published the Pentagon Papers. These documents described in the government’s own words how political leaders had lied to the American public about the war in Southeast Asia. From 1972-74, The Washington Post spearheaded the Watergate investigations that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation. The two reporters responsible for unearthing the truth and running with the story that led to President Nixon’s resignation were Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, who went on to stellar journalistic careers and set the bar high for future investigative reporters.

Throughout this period, the Nixon administration questioned the honesty and professionalism of the mainstream media despite the fact that their reporting was honest and professional. Thus began the de-legitimization of mainstream media by certain sectors in the Republican Party loyal to the Nixon presidency, and they blamed mainstream media for creating doubts about their party and their political class that led to the post-Watergate political malaise that began to infect the U.S. polity.

The transition from a liberal democracy to a more right-wing conservative philosophy of government began, for all intents and purposes, in 1973. The United States Supreme Court rendered its judgment on Roe vs. Wade – legalizing abortion. This led to a coalition of right-wing Christian preachers under the aegis of such charismatic individuals like Jerry Fallwell (who created the Moral Majority that figured so prominently during the Reagan era), Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, and others who created a new synergy between Republican conservatives and Christians – the Christian Right that has dominated Republican politics ever since.

They were assisted by the advent of conservative talk radio. In the seventies, the FM band became the norm for music broadcasts, and the AM band proved better suited for talk radio. AM then became the media of “talk” and the choice for a generation of talk show hosts who espoused different political views. This phenomenon came to a head when, during the Reagan era, Congress and the FCC ended the “Fairness Doctrine” that required broadcasters to provide equal time for different political points of view. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-fairness-doctrine-in-one-post/2011/08/23/gIQAN8CXZJ_blog.html?utm_term=.328d89cf0142

AM radio quickly grew into a strong political base for the conservative right, with such personalities as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and a younger Sean Hannity stoking the fires of the conservative revolution and creating a solid medium for transmitting this philosophy to the masses. Conservative talk-radio grew quickly with millions of followers across the United States seeking an alternative to the liberal views of mainstream media.

Their views centered on patriotism, the free market, small government, less regulation and conservative morality.

Their alienation from the liberalism of the day found a home in the conservative media, and its appeal quickly grew in scope and in influence.

Talk radio was followed in the early eighties by the advent of cable news networks providing 24/7 news and opinion programs on cable television – free from the constraints of broadcast legislation that governed the airways.

CNN came aboard in 1980 and quickly became the point of reference for U.S. and global leaders. It held the monopoly and soon became known for its centrist tendencies, although balanced with some right-wing commentators to provide a full airing of views. Today, CNN reaches some 96 million U.S. households, as well as having a global reach through its sister network CNN International (available in 212 countries and territories), and other CNN networks such as CNÑ Spanish, CNN Arabic, and other targeted sub-networks aimed at select cultural and linguistic markets.

In 1996, conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch launched FOX News, another full-service news channel on cable television, focusing on right wing views. Murdoch hired former Republican Party media consultant Roger Ailes to run the day-to-day operations, and FOX News quickly became the natural audiovisual complement to right-wing talk radio, and its moderators and personalities quickly became idols of the right in much the same way as CNN’s correspondents had monopolized centrist and center-left views previously. Today, FOX News reaches some 94 million U.S. households.

The United States quickly became a two-news network world in much the same way as it had become a two-party democracy two centuries earlier. Each had its following, and politicians from differing political stripes found a natural home in one or the other.

The creation of media tailored towards opposing political views polarized U.S. politics as never before and has provided each side of the political divide with a media outlet that can reach its target audiences immediately.

Unfortunately, it has deepened divisions in the United States. Currently, the politics of fear have a strong constituency among a large number of U.S. voters.

And these divisions will continue as long as voters support the voices of division and exclusion rather than voices of inclusion and compromise.

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