The Denigration of Political Authority in Television News: The Ecology Issue

SINCE the late 1960s, television news has come under sustained criticism. Some of this criticism centers on the alleged partisan and ideological bias in news presentation.' More significant, though, is the charge that television news programs manifest not political but journalistic bias.2 In this context one prominent complaint is that the network newscasts are similar, involve far too much speculation, and consistently overemphasize the negative, especially with regard to government. This, it is argued, denigrates political authority and in the end adversely affects the legitimacy of government. Such a position, for example, was taken by James Keogh, formerly Special Assistant to President Nixon and Executive Editor of Time. "The journalistic obsession with the negative [warrants] the most serious consideration of such effects on civilization by everyone in the profession."3 Whether voiced by layman, journalist, or scholar, the theoretical underpinnings of this argument are relatively consistent. Popular support for any system of government ultimately rests upon a set of expectations about governmental performance.4 In a democracy these expectations are manifest, and to the degree that these expectations are not met, popular support is lessened. Government, therefore, must be perceived as (1) responsive to the expressed demands of the population; (2) moral in its operating procedures and policies; (3) effective, that is, strong enough to get the job done; and (4) efficient, not wasteful.