The Role of the Press in a Recession
Over eager shoppers at a Long Island Wal-Mart trampled and killed a Wal-Mart greeter on Black Friday. This event is a tragedy on its own, but was made even worse in the way it was reported in The New York Times and reprinted in dozens of papers throughout the United States. The Times described the incident as “a sign of consumer desparation amid a bleak economy”. How in the world did they come to that conclusion other than to determine that the death of a Wal-Mart greeter wouldn’t sell papers, but news of out of control mobs reacting in desparation to an economic meltdown surely would. All the news that’s fit to print, I think not. Next up, two shoppers fighting over the last pumpkin pie at Costco will be described as a food riot.
The third estate has a responsibility to convey the news to the public with as little bias as humanly possible. We all understand that the press is politically biased and that their discussion of candidates for public office needs to be taken with a grain of salt or ignored all together. Unfortunately, when the public reads articles regarding the death of a person or the state of the economy, it has the right to consider the article to be objective reporting of news and not sensationalism meant to sell papers. Branding this incident as a “sign of desparation” extenuates the hysteria that has accompanied and driven the wild fluctuations in the stock market, declining consumer confidence and the resulting loss of jobs throughout our country. It is indeed ironic that Black Friday turned in a respectable 3% growth over last year.
The consumer will lead the way out of the recession and reporting like this will postpone our recovery. I don’t see the press changing the way it conducts business anytime soon. Newspapers are hit hard in a recession by the loss of ad revenue. I can only assume there is a disconnect between the editors and the publisher on what’s more important, ad revenue or sensational news stories.
Our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Wal-Mart greeter.
Richard Gabel
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