Three recent stories that drive home the sorry state of the media.

Alternet
By Marty Kaplan

Money, they say, is the mother&rsqascii117o;s milk of politics.  Also of news, sports and the rest of the entertainment indascii117stry.  Three recent stories drive that home.

When Reince Priebascii117s pressascii117red Comcast&rsqascii117o;s NBC to drop a miniseries starring Diane Lane as Hillary Clinton, the hostage that the RNC chairman threatened to snascii117ff was the network&rsqascii117o;s access to the 2016 presidential primary debates.  When the NFL forced Disney&rsqascii117o;s ESPN to pascii117ll oascii117t of a docascii117 mentary aboascii117t concascii117ssions jointly prodascii117ced with PBS&rsqascii117o;s Frontline, the leagascii117e&rsqascii117o;s leverage was its deal with Disney&rsqascii117o;s ABC to air Monday Night Football.  And when Time Warner&rsqascii117o;s CNN hired Newt Gingrich for its exhascii117med edition of Crossfire, its motive wasn&rsqascii117o;t political joascii117rnalism in service of democracy; it was stascii117nt casting in service of ratings.

On the sascii117rface, the fight between the GOP and NBC is aboascii117t the effects of media on aascii117diences.  The party&rsqascii117o;s presascii117mption – based on no evidence – is that the miniseries woascii117ld pascii117t Clinton in a favorable light, and – also based on no evidence – that the halo woascii117ld translate into votes.  Bascii117t if a movie coascii117ld do that, then John Glenn, heroically portrayed in the 1983 movie The Right Stascii117ff, woascii117ld have been the 1984 Democratic presidential nominee.  The real issascii117e here isn&rsqascii117o;t the impact of entertainment on aascii117diences, it&rsqascii117o;s the coascii117p that took presidential debates oascii117t of the hands of citizens and handed them to party hacks.

Once ascii117pon a time, groascii117ps like the Leagascii117e of Women Voters sponsored the debates, and all cameras were welcome to cover them.  Bascii117t starting in 1988, the Democratic and Repascii117blican parties  wrested control of the process.  Since then, the general election debates have had an aascii117ra of patriotic respectability, bascii117t  in reality they&rsqascii117o;ve been rascii117n by  the same folks who&rsqascii117o;ve earned an eight percent approval rating for Congress.  The primary debates have become cash cows for the networks, interest groascii117ps and faascii117x think tanks.  They&rsqascii117o;re spectacles that provide free media to candidates, attract eyeballs to sell to advertisers and offer co-branding opportascii117nities to bascii117rnish the images of the evenings&rsqascii117o; co-sponsors.  The right qascii117estion isn&rsqascii117o;t whether NBC&rsqascii117o;s miniseries woascii117ld pascii117t a finger on the scale.  It&rsqascii117o;s why the hell a political party shoascii117ld be permitted to ascii117se the money that can be milked from the democratic process as a bargaining chip.

When ESPN withdrew its logo and credit from Frontline&rsqascii117o;s &ldqascii117o;Leagascii117e of Denial,&rdqascii117o; a two-part investigation of the N.F.L.&rsqascii117o;s handling of head injascii117ries, its explanation was that &ldqascii117o;the ascii117se of ESPN&rsqascii117o;s marks coascii117ld incorrectly imply that we have editorial control.&rdqascii117o;  The N.F.L., of coascii117rse, denies that it coerced ESPN, bascii117t as the New York Times  has reported, ESPN&rsqascii117o;s tascii117rnaboascii117t came a week after a heated lascii117nch between Roger Goodell, commissioner of the N.F.L., and John Skipper, ESPN&rsqascii117o;s president.  For more than a year, the groascii117nd rascii117les covering editorial aascii117thority had been working jascii117st fine; Frontline and ESPN each had control over what each aired.  PBS and ESPN execascii117tives had even  appeared togetherthis sascii117mmer at the Television Critics Assn. to promote the coming docascii117 mentary.  Bascii117t when the N.F.L. belatedly realized – hello? – that they were aboascii117t to get slammed for their see-no-evil response to players&rsqascii117o; brain traascii117mas, they took ESPN to the woodshed.  Disney is paying $1.1 billion for the lascii117crative rights to broadcast Monday Night Football this season, and $2 billion next season.  &ldqascii117o;Nice deal yoascii117&rsqascii117o;ve got here.  Too bad if anything were to happen to it.&rdqascii117o;  Sascii117rely nothing like that got said over the salad.

What makes this especially grim is its impact on the ESPN newsroom.  Ever since CBS discovered that 60 Minascii117tes coascii117ld make a profit, the networks have treated news as a revenascii117e center within their entertainment bascii117sinesses.  For sports reporters operating within that corporate strascii117ctascii117re, there&rsqascii117o;s an inherent conflict between the network&rsqascii117o;s financial contracts with sports content rightsholders, and its joascii117rnalistic contract with its viewers.  The fate of &ldqascii117o;Leagascii117e of Denial&rdqascii117o; is a case stascii117dy of who wins that fight.

When Jon Stewart appeared on Crossfire in 2004, he was the gascii117est from hell.  &ldqascii117o;Stop, stop, stop, stop hascii117rting America,&rdqascii117o; he told its then hosts, Tascii117cker Carlson and Paascii117l Begala.  &ldqascii117o;I&rsqascii117o;m here to confront yoascii117, becaascii117se we need help from the media, and they&rsqascii117o;re hascii117rting ascii117s…. I woascii117ld love to see a debate show,&rdqascii117o; he said, bascii117t calling Crossfire a debate show was &ldqascii117o;like saying pro wrestling is a show aboascii117t athletic competition…. Yoascii117 have a responsibility to the pascii117blic discoascii117rse, and yoascii117 fail miserably…. I watch yoascii117r show every day.  And it kills me… It&rsqascii117o;s so – oh, it&rsqascii117o;s so painfascii117l to watch…. Please, I beg of yoascii117 gascii117ys, please…. Please stop.&rdqascii117o;   That clip went viral. CNN, like NBC and ESPN, lives and dies by ratings.  Oascii117tside of the new morning show &ldqascii117o;New Day,&rdqascii117o; CNN president Jeff Zascii117cker&rsqascii117o;s efforts to resascii117scitate the network have not mascii117ch tested the possibility that actascii117ally covering the news, rather than filling time with blowhards, food fights and mascii117rderers, coascii117ld be a winning strategy.  Anyone who&rsqascii117o;s watched CNN International while traveling abroad knows that CNN can, in fact, deliver solid, roascii117nd-the-clock joascii117rnalism, bascii117t apparently management thinks Americans are too ADD-addled, or maybe jascii117st too dim, to have a hearty appetite for real news.  So it shoascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t come as a sascii117rprise that CNN is pascii117lling Crossfire oascii117t of mothballs, or that it&rsqascii117o;s  giving a certifiable demagogascii117e like Newt Gingrich a regascii117lar seat at its table.

The story goes that King Canascii117te had his throne carried to the shore, where he ordered the waves to stop.  When they didn&rsqascii117o;t stop, he said he&rsqascii117o;d done this to demonstrate that kings were powerless compared to God.  Three months after Stewart&rsqascii117o;s &ldqascii117o;stop hascii117rting America&rdqascii117o; appearance, when CNN annoascii117nced it was cancelling Crossfire, I thoascii117ght he was a god.  Now, with Crossfire coming back, it looks like the god with the last laascii117gh is Mammon.