Magazine Staffer Scrutinizes Media

Journalist Ken Auletta sounded off on the Dean Scream, Jayson Blair, and other issues facing the American media in a talk yesterday at the Harvard Book Store.

“When I think about the media, I tend to be pessimistic,” Auletta told a crowd of 40 gathered at the popular Mass Ave. bookshop. “There is a clash between business interests and the culture of journalism.”

Auletta, who covers the media for The New Yorker, spoke in support of his latest work, Backstory: Inside the Business of News. The collection of essays focuses on the changing nature of the American press, specifically the effect of increased corporate growth and conglomeration.

“One of the things we have to do is figure out some way to communicate with the people who sign our checks. They don’t understand the world of journalism,” Auletta said.

He also decried the effect of business interests on the role of the reporter.

“It reduces us lower down the totem pole, farther away from the people who make decisions within the company,” he said.

Auletta’s voice cracked several times during the course of the talk. In a charcoal suit and carefully combed hair, he maintained his constant smile even as he put up with several long-winded questions from the audience.

One audience member questioned Auletta about the media’s coverage of former Vermont governor Howard Dean. Critics have blamed the press for the recent political collapse of the former front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“The press has a built-in bias for conflict and keeping the contest going,” Auletta said. “Somehow we felt licensed to step out of our fair and balanced world and mock this man.”

“The press need not have done that,” Auletta added.

Though the talk was well-attended, very few Harvard undergraduates were present.

Scoop A. Wasserstein ’07, who is also a Crimson editor, thought that Auletta brought up important points about media bias.

“All these [news] outlets reflect certain people’s viewpoints,” Wasserstein said. “But isn’t journalism supposed to have a higher purpose than simply reflecting the opinions of some segment of the population?”

Auletta questioned whether the press, once considered a tool of public service, still represented the public’s views in today’s corporate mediascape.

He relayed an anecdote about a reporter who, upon learning that President Bush did not read the newspaper, asked the president how he ascertained the opinions of the American public.

According to Auletta, the President responded without missing a beat: “You’re making a very powerful assumption—that you know what the American public thinks. I don’t believe that.”

Auletta called television news pundits “bloviators,” and blamed them for filling the airwaves with empty opinions and chatter.

He also criticized the press for accepting the administration’s assertions about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

“We did not give it the scrutiny that we were supposed to,” Auletta said.

—Staff writer Michael M. Grynbaum can be reached at grynbaum@fas.harvard.edu.