The Power of the Press

OpinionJournal - Extra

The media is in need of some mending.

Thomas Jefferson, a better president than we've had in a very long time, penned a line back in 1787: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I would not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." By 1807, in his seventh year as president and after seven years of being subjected to severe press criticism, he wrote: "I deplore the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity and the mendacious spirit of those who write them."

You'll be relieved to know that Jefferson did remain true to his primary principle: "The press," he concluded, "is an evil for which there is no remedy. Liberty depends upon freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost." He was right then, and we are right now, to prefer a free press, however flawed, to any controlled alternative. Still, as we watched CNN flashing its pre-election logos each day--"Broken Borders," "Broken Government," "Broken Politics," Broken Everything--I can't help thinking the media, too, is in need of some mending.

At its best news informs and enlightens the citizens of a free society and thereby safeguards and strengthens our democracy. At its worst--dishonest, unfair, irresponsible--the media has potential to erode the public trust on which its own success depends and to corrode the democratic system of which it is so indispensably a part. So, let me touch on 10 current trends in the mass media that ought to disturb us.

The blurring of the lines between journalism and entertainment.

The blurring of lines between news and opinion.

The blending of news and advertising, sponsorships or other commercial relationships.

The problems and pitfalls inherent in pack journalism.

The issue of conflict and context.

The exaggerated tendency toward pessimism.

The growing media fascination with the bizarre, the perverse and the pathological--John Mark Karr journalism.

Social orthodoxy, or political correctness.

The media's short attention span.

The matter of power.

Mr. Kann, a Pulitzer-winning journalist, is chairman of Dow Jones.