Overload: Finding the Truth in Today's Deluge of News

168 Pages·2019·1.057 MB·English

by  Schieffer, Bob;Schwartz, H. Andrew

OVERLOAD
OVERLOAD
Finding the Truth in Today’s Deluge
of News
Bob Schieffer
with
H. Andrew Schwartz
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB
Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
Copyright © 2017 by Center for Strategic & International Studies
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schieffer, Bob author. | Schwartz, H. Andrew author.
Title: Overload : finding the truth in today’s deluge of news / Bob Schieffer with H.
Andrew Schwartz.
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017021959 (print) | LCCN 2017034151 (ebook) | ISBN
9781538107225 (Electronic) | ISBN 9781538107218 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Journalism--Political aspects—United States—History—21st century. |
Mass media—Political aspects—United States—History—21st century. | Press and
politics—United States.
Classification: LCC PN4888.P6 (ebook) | LCC PN4888.P6 S35 2017 (print) | DDC
070.4/49320973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017021959
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
The scarcest resource in journalism now is attention span. We used to
live in a world governed by the laws of physics, time and space—time
on the air, space in a newspaper—were our key constraints. The really
controlling force in the world right now is how long can you keep
your audience, your followers, consuming the journalism you create.
—Michael Oreskes, NPR
Contents
Foreword
Part I How We Got from There to Here
1. Are We Getting the Right Stuff?
2. The Challenge of Campaign 2016: How Do You Solve a Problem Like
the Donald?
3. The Numbers Guys: What the Pollsters Missed
4 And That’s the Way It Is, er, Was: Newspapers, Gatekeepers, and a More
Orderly Time
5. And Here’s the Way We Are: New Neighbors in the News Neighborhood
6. Fake News: A Clear and Present Danger
Part II The Future Has Arrived
7. Walt Mossberg: Bridging the Gap
8. The Washington Post: New Culture, New Ways
9. The New York Times: Doing What They Do Best (but Faster)
10. The Wall Street Journal: Separating Church and State
11. The Texas Tribune: Filling a Texas-Size Void
12. Island in the Stream: CBS News Goes Digital
13. Andy Lack: Around the World and Back for More
14. The Cable Guy(s)
15. The Root: Straight Talk and a Little Shade
16. The Year of Living Righteously: NPR Gets Back to Basics
17. Podcast News: The Rebirth of Cool
18. Newsletters: So Old They’re New
19. Stephen Colbert: The Case of the Stolen Gig
20. Flying Solo Sooner: Training Reporters for the New Era
Part III Final Thoughts
21. 2016: Reflections on the Year That Was
Afterword
Acknowledgments
About the Authors and Contributors
About the Center for Strategic & International Studies
Foreword
NOT SINCE THE NIXON ADMINISTRATION when Spiro Agnew called them
“nattering nabobs of negativity” have reporters seen their integrity
challenged with such reckless ferocity as during the first weeks of the
Trump administration. From his White House podium, the new president
regularly called them “dishonest,” purveyors of “fake news,” and finally
“enemy of the American people.”
His senior advisor Stephen K. Bannon called them “the opposition
party” and told them to shut up.
Although it never stooped to such name-calling, the Clinton campaign
and its surrogates kept up a daily barrage of press criticism throughout the
campaign. Other criticism came from beyond the campaign organizations
and sometimes from within the profession.
This book is not meant as a rebuttal, nor does it take exception to the
right of any and all to criticize the press. That is as much a part of free
speech as the right to publish. Rather, this is a series of chapters that
examines journalism and those who practice it—how they see their
profession, how it has been changed by new technology, and how well they
believe they are carrying out their responsibility to provide Americans with
the information they need to be good citizens. It is also an attempt to help
those outside the profession to have a better understanding of reporters and
how they go about their jobs.
It is a subjective work. I have been a reporter for sixty years. I spent