Media far from Mean in #MeToo movement

Photo by Mihai Surdu on Unsplash

By Deron Snyder

Regarding the age-old question – “Is man basically good or evil?” – Aristotle left no doubt where he stood. He contended that moral excellence is not man’s natural state, and it is achieved only through determined and repeated effort. That sustained endeavor helps man distinguish what is morally correct and leads him to lean in that direction. Aristotle’s “Golden Mean” resides between the extremes of good and evil.

This middle is particularly relevant to journalism in three areas of ethics and credibility: unsubstantiated saturation coverage, gratuitous shock value, and stereotypical characterizations (Dickson, 1988). The media’s tendency to overindulge in these areas represents a moral failing, whereas exhibiting restraint would allow the industry to find the mean.

The principle in reference to journalism is more relevant than ever, as the 24-hour news cycle and the proliferation of digital news continue to move faster. Ethical norms and standards were never uniform before – even among traditional media organizations – and the wave of new media outlets has caused wider divergence. The quest for clicks, readers, viewers, and especially revenue, plays a large role when journalists play fast and loose with ethics (Dickson, 1988).

Media criticism of that nature was evident during the 2016 presidential election when news networks were chided for running Donald Trump’s campaign speeches in full – treatment that other candidates seldom if ever enjoyed. Speaking at Harvard in October 2017, CNN president Jeff Zucker said extending that amount of time was “a mistake,” but “you never knew what he would say. There was an attraction to put those on the air” (Bowden, 2018).

Sizzle sells while substance does its best to be valued. That is nothing new; the observation was among several in a 1925 press critique (Dickson, 1988). But society has raised the bar on how much sizzle is acceptable. The loosening has given media outlets more leeway to stray from the Golden Mean and meander toward our baser nature. Whereas sexual relations in all forms, sanctioned and illicit, were once off-limits, they are now among the best subjects for luring an audience.

It has been said that one role of news media is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. That means exposing guilty parties and consoling innocent victims. Relaxed societal standards have allowed more reporting on sex scandals, which are especially juicy when celebrities are involved.

But the #MeToo movement revealed a serious problem in that arrangement: The industry that eagerly shines a light on others’ misdeeds, has kept its own dirt in the dark and looked the other way (Rutenberg, 2017).

It should be noted that sexual harassment in the workplace is not confined to specific fields. According to one study, nearly 40 percent of U.S. women have been victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault at the hands of a co-worker (Weathington, 2018). The media industry is no different. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, 41 percent of staff journalists and 47 of freelancers said they have experienced sexual harassment in a newsroom, but 67 percent of staffers did not report the incident to their Human Resources department (Edge, 2018).

While it would not be surprising to learn that harassment occurs within multiple levels of organizations, a pattern is evident when considering cases of big, powerful men at the top. The shadows cast by Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Bill O’Reilly and Garrison Keillor were among the largest in media. They were highly compensated and highly regarded, with ample ability to impact a junior staffer’s’ career negatively or positively. Employers were sinking millions of dollars in their leading men and were more interested in protecting their investments than the women who came forward with complaints (Rutenberg, 2017).

The employers turned their backs, or downplayed the offenses, or wrote checks. That was unfair to the women. But the employers have done a disservice to the people as well. The media executives have framed issues they clearly did not understand themselves. The same men doing the choosing – which cultural and political stories to run and which angles to take – were the same men doing the abusing. “The media is breaking the news here; the media is still deeply implicated in this news and still shaping how the tale is getting told” (Traister, 2017).

Much like the question of who polices the police, who reports the reporters? As a whole, the industry is much better at pointing fingers than looking in the mirror. It is much better at lip service like, say, championing racial diversity in the workplace, opposed to actually reflecting racial diversity in its newsrooms (Delaney, 2018). The media has been casting stones from its glass house.

When personalities become as large as Lauer, O’Reilly, et al, they cannot be viewed as too big to fail. That makes their victims too little to matter. To make a change, journalists must hold themselves to even higher standards than they place on subjects they cover. The Golden Mean is not good enough; media should be – at the bare minimum – three-quarters or four-fifths of the way to moral excellence in terms of conduct and transparency.

Every newsroom must have a sexual harassment policy that every employee is required to sign. Additionally, company leaders should host annual mandatory training and create peer-support networks that are outside the chain-of-command (Edge, 2018). Most importantly, sexual harassment should make men as sick and disgusted as women.

There should be mass resignations from the “old boys club,” where a journalist and political candidate can laugh about grabbing a woman’s crotch. Men who engage in alleged behavior like Estrella TV executive Andres Angulo should be reported by men in the know (and there are always other men aware). A former anchor allegedly was removed from her chair for refusing Angulo’s “years of innumerable, incessant and filthy petitions;” she had hours of secret recordings to support her claim (Maddaus, 2017).

The #MeToo movement has demonstrated, equally well, the media’s power and the media’s weakness. The industry was strong enough to illuminate a decades- or centuries-old problem, but feeble enough to be part of the problem, too.

Moving forward, the media must develop an aptitude to choose the Golden Mean – inside and outside its newsrooms – so that it operates with the best of motives (Dickson, 1988). It will not happen automatically or by accident, only intentionally with intense effort.

References

Bowden, J. (2018, March 29). Three top cable news networks cut away from Trump speech. The Hill.

Delaney, P. (2018, March 20). Kerner report at 50: Media diversity still decades behind. USA Today.

Dickson, S. (1988). The Golden Mean of Journalism. Journal of Mass Media Ethics.

Edge, B. A. (2018, Spring). The #MeToo Moment. The Quill.

Maddaus, G. (2017, January 2017). A Newsroom on Edge. Variety.

Rutenberg, J. (2017, November 29). A Failure of the Nework News Star System. The New York Times.

Traister, R. (2017, October 27). Our National Narratives are Still Being Shaped by Lecherous, Powerful Men. THe Cut.

Weathington, B. (2018). Is Sexual Harrassment an Endemic Social Issue? Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice.