The growing conflict between the logic of the marketplace and the duty of
journalism is one of the most important issues of our times, but you would
never know it from the media coverage. That kind of disconnect between public
interest and media coverage is a perfect example of why the flow of
information should not be determined by market logic.
News media are to a society what sensory perceptions are to an individual;
they provide information necessary to accurately assess our situation and act
accordingly. As global citizens, we are best served by a wide and varied flow
of information. But media properties increasingly are coming under corporate
control and the resulting pressure to turn big profits for stockholders often
trumps their journalistic obligations.
The increasing tension between the forces of mammon and those of the
messenger Mercury has been a growing concern of media critics across the
ideological spectrum. There is an inherent conflict of interest between
commodified information and democracy. But concern about that conflict had
been confined to ruminations in op-ed pages or academic conferences.
All of that changed recently when Jay T. Harris, publisher of the San Jose
Mercury News, resigned his post to protest corporate ownership's profit
targets.
Harris, a 30-year veteran of the news business, has worked as a reporter,
editor, academic and corporate executive. He was one of the highest-ranking
African-American newspaper executives in the nation. According to the American
Journalism Review, he also was considered the heir apparent to Knight Ridder
CEO Tony Ridder. Harris' resignation stunned the newspaper industry and
brought the issue of corporate profits versus journalistic integrity into the
open.
"Much greater priority is given today to the business aspects of our
enterprise than is given to fulfilling our public trust," Harris wrote in his
letter of resignation to top executives at Knight Ridder, the corporate parent
of the Mercury News. "I fear as well that we no longer sense the same level of
`moral obligation' to `excel in all that we do' and that our founders'
commitment to publishing `high-quality' newspapers' is no longer the powerful
drive in the company that it once was."
The 52-year-old Harris spent some of his early years in the Chicago area as
an assistant dean at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He
was a national correspondent and columnist for the Gannett News Service and
became the first black executive editor of the Philadelphia Daily News. In
1988, he moved on to Knight Ridder's corporate staff and was vice president of
operations when he left in 1994 to become publisher of the Mercury News in
California's then-booming Silicon Valley. The paper experienced remarkable
growth during his tenure.
In other words, Harris is no starry-eyed idealist pushing impractical
stratagems. He is a newspaper veteran with a solid grounding in the corporate
realities of contemporary media. Harris is respected by most journalists and
he is also considered a "company man" and loyal corporate soldier.
In his letter of resignation, however, he wrote that corporate budget
demands could result in "significant and lasting harm to the Mercury News as a
journalistic enterprise." He wrote that he feared the corporation was placing
too much focus on economic concerns at the expense of high-quality journalism,
and thus the paper's role as a public trust.
Many in the industry quietly share Harris' fears--and for good reason. The
slumping economy has put a financial squeeze on newspapers across the country.
Advertising revenue and profits are down while newsprint costs are soaring.
Since most media companies are publicly traded corporations, they are just as
susceptible to the laws of the market as is any other company seeking to
attract investment funds. The higher their earnings the more attractive they
are.
There has always been a creative tension between newspapers' business
interests and their journalistic obligations, but most mainstream publications
have managed to maintain a workable balance--although there are many critics
who insist that business interests have always determined media coverage. The
justification for funding non-profit media institutions like public radio and
television was that they provided a sanctuary, of sorts, from the compelling
tug of the marketplace.
As Harris' resignation makes clear, that tug is more powerful than ever.
Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor at In These Times
Copyright 2001 Chicago Tribune
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