Yelling "Fire!" for profit

By Richard Lakin

Usually, when we think about corporate social responsibility, it's community outreach, foundation support, fair trade issues, or green initiatives. However, when you're in the news business, you have a social responsibility to present journalism that brings a balanced view to issues that affect the society that you serve. Part of the deal of a free press is the responsibility not to abuse this right by pandering to baser sentiments in order to increase your revenue. Of course, when this does happen, it's not unique to our times. William Randolph Hearst famously said, “You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war.” I'm not naive. There's always been a profit motive in news distribution, and there always will be.

Nor am I opposed to advocacy journalism. You know that you're not going to get the same editorial approach to an issue from The Washington Post and The Washington Times. Difference in opinion is a good thing for a democracy. However, with the rise in popularity of 24 hour cable news and talk radio, there seems to be an alarming trend to cater to a paranoid and violence-prone fringe. Historically, whether it was Hearst's Spanish-American War coverage or the media's timidity in confronting Joseph McCarthy, this kind of pandering has never been beneficial for The Republic in the long run.

With the murder of Dr. George Tiller, closely followed by the shooting by a white supremacist at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, news organizations need to take a hard look at whether or not they are inciting this behavior with shrill hysteria designed to boost their ratings. The past has taught us two things about this kind of journalism: one, that there is always a market for fear-mongering and, two, that it's never turned out well for our society.

Moreover, what's really irresponsible is that they don't want to own up to it. In fact, both Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh spun it so that these incidents were actually the President's fault, simply because of his polarizing presence! We assume that the people who are in charge of these news outlets are smart, professional people who know what they are doing, yet they continue to promote this incendiary rhetoric. We also assume that the advertising professionals who place commercial spots on these programs are aware that their sponsorship is financing this vitriolic tirade.

If not, maybe we should remind them when we make decisions about purchasing their products.

About Richard Lakin
Richard Lakin is a co-founder of 18 rabbits digital media, a social entrepreneurial project that gives the world’s youth a voice, and is an advocate for student-produced new media. Richard has produced CSR media for multinational companies and NGOs all over the world.