Fear and Favor in the Newsroom

As media companies merge faster than Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee break up (and reunite), the question of whether independent voices are being squeezed out is becoming more of an issue. Arguments that there are a wider range of conduits for non-official stories than ever before are countered by the accounts presented in this sobering Studs Terkel-narrated warning about the muzzling of journalists, both on the individual and national level. When former New York Times reporter Frances Cerra wrote an investigative article on Long Island's plans for a new power plant, questioning the company's financial solvency, her story was shelved and she was pulled from the L.I. beat (it later turned out that Cerra's story was dead on-target). Cerra wasn't the only Times reporter to experience internal censorship; Sidney Schanberg (played by Sam Waterston in The Killing Fields) had his op-ed column discontinued after he wrote too many critical articles dealing with controversial city issues. Not even PBS is immune: Peter Graumman's story on a proposed nuclear waste site in Needles, CA was virtually gutted before it aired on the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour. Of course, on a national level, we have the example of the Gulf War, which was--thanks to a government clamp on what the media could and could not show--the cleanest war Americans have seen in decades (until reporters like Jon Alpert were able to get footage of the real civilian damage out to the public). A compelling examination of the dangers of having all of our news fed through five conglomerates, Fear and Favor in the Newsroom is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)