Saving the Beast

Feed the beast! From a newsroom battle cry to the lamentation of reporters under deadline, the beast – the news – needed nourishment to be satiated. To do this properly, reporters were guided by principles like professionalism and objectivity. But that canon has been cast aside. The food is now tainted, poisonous to the once-thriving beast. The beast is dying. Mainstream media and its audience once enjoyed an unspoken covenant; the public expected the media to deliver the news in an unbiased, objective manner and in return, gave the media its trust, time, and money. Over decades, American journalism became unrecognizable. And so, the public has responded with frustration, distrust, and downright enmity. Can the beast be saved? News reporter-turned-media-critic Ted Czech explores the issue from its root causes, asking us to consider if the old beast should be resuscitated, or instead allowed to perish – while a new beast is bred and nurtured by those the public determines are better equipped to feed it.