May 9, 2003

Syndicated columnist gives views of the news media

by Nicole C. Fitz Rawlins, A'05, Intern at the Offices of Public Affairs and Publications

Cynthia Tucker, the editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and syndicated columnist, gave a lecture at Loyola on April 24, titled "News After Iraq: What We Need to Know Now." Tucker expressed her views on the present state of the news media and the public's lack of awareness of what is important.

In her speech, Tucker stated that since the fall of the Berlin Wall, America has lapsed into a false feeling of peace. Foreign threats to the United States did not end with the collapse of the Soviet Union, she advised. She pointed to the numerous terrorist attacks on U.S. territories, such as the bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the suicide bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, as forewarnings to September 11. However, she noted, the news media did not cover these events with the same intensity that scandals and superficial news stories were given. She argued that Americans might have been more prepared for the September 11 attacks had the news media covered the previous attacks with the importance and the kind of interest that the American public deserved. Americans are self-absorbed and ignorant of foreign affairs, she said, and the news media bears the responsibility for an uneducated citizenry.

"News stations and newspapers focus on giving the public what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear," she stressed. Tucker pointed out that in an effort to be patriotic, some news media did not cover many of the anti-war demonstrations across the country. She said the issue is not whether reporters support what is being done, it is recognizing that if it is news, it is their obligation to cover it.

Journalists have not done a good enough job of disillusioning the public and have skipped over the obvious questions about the Bush administration's reasons for the war, she said. "In a sycophantic patriotism that doesn't question the president," Tucker said, "they have failed to get sufficient proof of the connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11." As journalists, "we can work harder to pull away the layers of ignorance" regarding the war, she offered.

Tucker reasoned that the media want to disassociate from the liberal image. They have been accused of being too liberal for so long that in an effort not to appear so, news organizations are afraid to be aggressive in reporting certain events, she concluded. This is why, she suggested, the news media does not want to question the administration. Perhaps if reporters or journalists had asked Bush or Dole their opinions on foreign affairs during their presidential campaigns, she speculated, it would have forced them to address the issues and the public would have been more aware.

The hour spent discussing news coverage of the war elicited many questions from the audience. Tucker was asked how she felt the war should be covered. She answered, the news media should show more of what war is really like for everyone involved, the good and the bad. It should show, not just the American soldiers, but the innocent victims as well. Tucker explained that the American public only sees the victorious side of the war and is greatly unaware of what war really looks like.

"Reports about the war do not affect people the same as pictures," she stated. The censorship of the war is being done in response to the sensitivity of the American audience. Americans have become used to comfort and convenience and live with a false sense of security, she emphasized, that even the war has not penetrated. "It is our patriotic duty as journalists to give you the whole story," declared Tucker, "and not just the Hollywood ending."

Tucker stresses that the American public needs to be more aware of what its leaders are doing. Americans would put pressure on their leaders if they were outraged enough about what is going on, she hypothesized. "Victory in this war will depend on an informed citizenry."