Unified Field Theory, Media Edition

From the new mag, Miller-McCune:

Why has the U.S. political press found a possibly imprecise use of the word "bitter" fascinating for weeks on end? Why does a search of significant English-language news sources turn up 985 articles in the last year that include the words "Britney" and "underwear"? And why, oh why, do news organizations all follow the same stories almost all the time, moving in such complete lockstep that they might as well be Groucho Marx in the Duck Soup mirror scene?

Because I've been a journalist for decades, I've been asked why the news media seem so repetitive and, yes, dumb at least several hundr ed times now, usually at cocktail parties. (Three drinks, I've learned, turn anyone into a journalistic expert.) When I was young, the questions would rile me, and I'd spout First Amendment bromides. The longer I worked in journalism, though, the more I sensed that a systemic disorder had infected the news business. It was a malady that led newspapers and television news organizations to copy one another often, while pretending never to. And to quote from the most self-serving of business and government press releases as though they were Moses' tablets. And to rely on official sources, even when the sources were obviously wrong or lying. And to commit many resources to coverage of transitory and trivial events and very few to investigative or other enterprise reporting that would result in stories of lasting import.

So, when faced with questions about the failings of my chosen trade, I began to evade. No, I'd say, most reporters aren't secretly trying to sneak their own views into the news pages. And no, although it happens sometimes, the owners of large news organizations don't generally reach down into the newsroom nowadays to bludgeon enemies and help friends. And no, I'd say, the mayor (or the governor, or the president) can't usually threaten news executives with anything that would make them kill a story. It's not that simple, I'd say; the problem's more complicated than that. But I never could come up with an overarching explanation, the Unified Field Theory of General Media Banality.

British journalist Nick Davies offers just that with his book Flat Earth News, a much-discussed best-seller since its U.K. publication earlier this year. Emend that: It's been much talked about in England but gone largely unnoticed in the U.S., in no small part because it has yet to pick up a U.S. publisher. It should, and quickly. The book is sophisticated and not just engagingly written, but hilarious in all the right places.

There's more. . . . .