The news media has lost control 

It has been said that journalists provide the conversation of democracy. That old adage is losing steam in this era, however, as the news agenda for the nation’s rhetorical sphere is increasingly being framed by many and varied new voices.

For decades, the journalism establishment exercised great power in deciding the topics and issues that Americans reflected over at the kitchen table or water cooler, and eventually at the voting booth. “The news” was what primary gatekeepers such as The Associated Press, The New York Times and CBS said was news.

Americans assumed that journalists brought particular and professional expertise to the agenda-setting function. Citizens also believed these reporters were representative of the nation’s population, and therefore committed to creating a sensible, fair and wide-ranging news marketplace. News consumers respected journalists and trusted that the news industry was trying to serve a greater societal purpose. Long-time and legendary CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite was once widely considered the most trusted person in the nation. 

But the media establishment has largely squandered this lofty role and lost the confidence of news consumers. The news agenda has become infected with activism, hyperpartisanship and, at times, superficiality.

The AllSides Media Bias Chart tracks the ideological leanings of a wide range of news outlets. Precious few achieve a centrist rating. Some receive a “leans right” label, but most establishment news outlets receive a “leans left.” 

Credibility ratings for the journalism industry have suffered as a result, and news consumers are looking elsewhere for information. Perhaps even worse, some citizens are just becoming news bystanders who no longer care about being informed. 

This void is being increasingly filled by all kinds of other voices, including podcasters, bloggers, social media provocateurs and even fringe, bombastic miscreants. On one level, this could actually be considered a good development. It is certainly the American way that everybody gets to have their say. The constitutional framers, indeed, intended that free press and free speech rights applied broadly to the wise and even the less than wise. The marketplace of news content need not be left any more to the machinations of a handful of elite, detached editors and producers in corporate media towers.  

The warping of the news agenda by supposedly professional journalists no doubt opened the door for the other players to emerge. And the old-time media have not yet figured out that squeezing the agenda won’t work in the wide-open marketplace of the internet.  

The major broadcast networks provided minimal coverage last month of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s press briefing about a possible role of the Obama administration in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. CNN dumped out of its coverage with a correspondent questioning whether the story deserved any time at all. Gabbard’s comments deserved to be scrutinized, of course, but a DNI’s pointed remarks are news.

However, there are risks associated with having the nation’s news agenda set by the rough and tumble atmosphere of social media, podcasters, influencers and zany characters. These actors are often more interested in buzz and vibe than deliberation and rational thinking.  

And now, in turn, traditional media cruise the internet looking for “news,” trying to capitalize on the buzz of alternative agenda setters. There is little other way to explain the Coldplay concert couple or Sydney Sweeney’s advertisement. And who would have figured a time when a key factor in a presidential election was which candidate did or did not go on Joe Rogan’s podcast? Establishment journalism being influenced by the grassroots surely indicates a surrender by the news industry of its long-established responsibility to set an agenda of substance.  

Perhaps G.K. Chesterton had it right a hundred years ago when he mused, “I am a journalist and so am vastly ignorant of many things, but because I am a journalist, I write and talk about them all.” But there should still be a key role for professional agenda-setters even in today’s cluttered public sphere. Democracy and rational decision-making need an agenda based on deliberate and measured judgement, rather than chasing buzz and vibe.  

Professional editors and producers owe the nation a national dialogue based on relevance, high impact and perspective. A nation distracted by a shrill and superficial news agenda is unable to effectively address the serious challenges the nation faces. 

Jeffrey M. McCall is a media critic and professor of communication at DePauw University. He has worked as a radio news director, a newspaper reporter and as a political media consultant.