In August, the researchers wrote in the journal Health Communication reports findings from a study of media consumption habits. In results that won’t surprise anyone who’s spent five minutes on Twitter, they found that Americans who engage in “problematic media consumption”—that is, watching too much news online, in print, and on television—experienced harm. effects on mental health as well as disruptions to sleep and their personal interactions with others. “While we want people to stay engaged with the news, it’s important that they have a healthier relationship with the news,” one of the researchers noted in a news release.
Fortunately, Chris Stirewalt is here to help. on Breaking News: Why the Media Rage Machine Is Dividing America and How to Fight Back, the former political editor of Fox News Channel and current fellow at the American Enterprise Institute offers a sharply observed and sometimes hilarious journey through our contemporary media ecosystem, with particular attention to how the Americans helped build and now happily participate in running the “anger. machine” in the subtitle of the book. (Full Disclosure: I recently became a Stirewalt partner at AEI.)
For a book about an industry torn by political conflict, Breaking News because it is refreshing that there is no partisan cant. In fact, Stirewalt explained that the problems facing journalism affect everyone on the political spectrum: “What’s wrong with my vocation and the industry I work in hurts Americans left, right, and center,” he reasoned.
Why are we so angry and polarized? Stirewalt traces the transition from print to radio to television to the Internet and the challenges of these different modes of communication to civic health. He describes how these developments have contributed to the growth of national media, often at the expense of local news. And he argues passionately for the importance of healthy media for American life. “The American Creed needs written words and a common culture in which to understand it,” Stirewalt argued. Today, however, “much of our news does not seek to understand ideas, but to evoke strong feelings – often fear, anger, and resentment.”
Stirewalt reminds readers of historical moments when transitions occurred, such as the radio reporter who said, “oh, the people,” while describing the Hindenburg disaster. “The audience is connected not to the event itself, but to the reporter’s reaction to the event,” says Stirewalt. As a result, “the news consumer passively receives emotional meaning.” We remember the emotional response if not more than the event that provoked it.
That’s because emotion sells, especially fear, anger, anxiety, and hate. “The hatred people feel for their fellow Americans is not just a product of political coverage,” Stirewalt argued, “but a necessary part of making the majority of that coverage worthwhile.” Media institutions are now in the business of “optimizing for outrage,” as one writer described the changing tone of coverage offered by Washington Post during the presidency of Donald Trump. Stirewalt is rightly critical of the mainstream media for initially flirting with and ultimately masochistically embracing our former president; Fifty Shades of Donald Trump has proven to be a hugely profitable and odious franchise that media companies will resist. “Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were equally good on television,” wrote Stirewalt. “Trump is television.”
“Balanced, thoroughly reported news is hard to do, expensive, and often boring,” Stirewalt reminds us. “Tribal rage is easy, cheap, and fun.” It also appeals deeply to the bases of human instinct—and we’ve perfected the technologies and platforms that make its expression seamless. When people log on to Twitter they no doubt think of themselves as thoughtful, rational Lockeans. When they see a provocative Tweet from a political opponent, however, they go into Hobbes land.
Stirewalt has personal experience with the consequences of this new style of journalism. Fox News fired him after he made the Decision Desk call that Joe Biden won Arizona on election night 2020. Fox News viewers and even Donald Trump protested loudly on social media about the call, though if this is correct. “Fox viewers have become more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenges their expectations,” he said, with the admirable fairness of his former boss.
Stirewalt describes other factors that contribute to our broken media institutions, such as the diminishing power of individual political parties, which exacerbates partisanship, as well as the way the media rewards the pursuit of fame in most of our elected officials. “If Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez really wanted to raise taxes on the rich, she wouldn’t do it by writing ‘tax the rich’ on her ankle and going to the Met Gala,” Stirewalt said. “But if he wants to popular because he wants to raise taxes on the rich, then he is on the way.” This, too, is a bipartisan pain, as demonstrated by the careers of Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Throughout the book, Stirewalt rejects the effort of journalists to practice “post-journalism,” which focuses on generating emotional responses (and attachment) from users and a sense of group identity based on shared values rather than reporting facts. Its close cousin is “moral clarity” journalism, which argues that journalists should abandon honesty for the greater purpose of writing stories that go beyond what causes social justice. they want to be champions.
I’d like to hear more of Stirewalt’s thoughts on how cultural trends affect what people want from media. We have raised several generations of Americans who believe that life can and should give them what they want when needed and who believe their opinion on everything (but who also believe that any challenge to what they say is a form of of violence). Twitter makes everyone their own editorial page editor, all day, every day, in real time. The endless opportunities to argue online obviously didn’t strengthen the bonds of our union, but we continued to spend hours doing it.
As for solutions, Stirewalt offers many great solutions; call them Stirewalt’s Rules of Reporting, and if you’re an aspiring journalist, memorize them. I will summarize the best of them as follows:
Journalists must take the practice of journalism seriously, and themselves not so much.
The practical experience of reporting on the mundane details of municipal government is far more valuable than fanciful assumptions such as “moral clarity” journalism. Practice, not theory. Reporting, not opinion. Facts, not overly emotional apocalyptic.
Strengthen local news coverage. Resist the temptation to see every issue and idea through a national news lens. Report what is happening in places that are often ignored by the coastal elite and big media companies. If all politics is local, then more newspapers must be local too.
There are many more lessons buried in this remarkable book: Journalists should stop relying so much on anonymous sources. News consumers need to stop demanding that political reporting be like a Real Housewives dispute. Journalists should stop acting like butchers, picking at the carcass of partisan politics looking for usable scraps, and instead pursue the ideal of objectivity, even if they fail to achieve it. this.
And, above all, don’t make everything political. This approach leads to moral transgression.
George Orwell hovers as a patron throughout the book, and Stirewalt quotes him as a warning of the dangers of an information environment where lies are accepted as truth. Stirewalt is more optimistic than Orwell, but his message is just as important: We cannot abandon journalism to the forces of cynicism and anger. We need it. We need a healthy media environment because when journalism is done well, it serves an important civic purpose. It reminds us that despite our differences and disagreements, we must find a common purpose, a common story—only then can we fully appreciate the incredible freedoms we enjoy.
Breaking News: Why the Media Rage Machine Is Dividing America and How to Fight Back
by Chris Stirewalt
Center Street, 256 pp., $29
Christine Rosen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and media columnist for the commentary magazine.
