Everything you have long suspected about cable news — the generally low editorial standards, the pursuit of ratings at all costs, the intentional exacerbation of sensitive topics with the lowest, most jarringly partisan commentary, the subordination of actual news items to internecine, petty culture-war fights — is true, according to a former MSNBC producer.
“July 24 was my last day at MSNBC,” Ariana Pekary announced in a personal blog post. “My colleagues are very smart people with good intentions. The problem is the job itself. It forces skilled journalists to make bad decisions on a daily basis.”
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She adds, “You may not watch MSNBC but just know that this problem still affects you, too. All the commercial networks function the same — and no doubt that content seeps into your social media feed, one way or the other.”
And, boy, on that score, does Pekary have some thoughts.
“It’s possible that I’m more sensitive to the editorial process due to my background in public radio, where no decision I ever witnessed was predicated on how a topic or guest would ‘rate,’” she writes. “The longer I was at MSNBC, the more I saw such choices — it’s practically baked in to the editorial process — and those decisions affect news content every day.”
Pekary adds, “Likewise, it’s taboo to discuss how the ratings scheme distorts content, or it’s simply taken for granted, because everyone in the commercial broadcast news industry is doing the exact same thing. But behind closed doors, industry leaders will admit the damage that’s being done.”
One anonymous television veteran reportedly summed up the problem for her in extremely blunt terms: “We are a cancer and there is no cure.”
“But if you could find a cure,” that same person told Pekary, “it would change the world.”
This “cancer,” the former MSNBC producer writes, risks human lives, even amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“As new details have become available about antibodies, a vaccine, or how COVID actually spreads, producers still want to focus on the politics. Important facts or studies get buried,” Pekary writes.
The “cancer,” stokes national division.
“The model blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events, at the expense of others,” she writes, “all because it pumps up the ratings.”
The “cancer,” Pekary adds, also risks “our democracy.”
“Any discussion about the election usually focuses on Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, a repeat offense from 2016 (Trump smothers out all other coverage),” the former producer explains. “Also important is to ensure citizens can vote by mail this year, but I’ve watched that topic get ignored or ‘killed’ numerous times.”
Part of the reason that the networks opt for the easiest, most ratings-friendly content, Pekary explains, is that they believe audiences are too stupid for difficult, nuanced news reporting.
“Context and factual data are often considered too cumbersome for the audience,” she writes.
What that leaves us with is a widely accepted business model in which entire networks eschew real news reporting and commentary in favor of playing to their audiences’ basest desires, hopes, and fears. Or, as one “very capable senior producer” reportedly told Pekary, “Our viewers don’t really consider us the news. They come to us for comfort.”
It has been clear for years that this is how cable and, perhaps to a lesser extent, broadcast news operates. It is another thing entirely to hear someone from the inside confirm as much in her own words.
