News Media Miss Important Story at Rand Paul Event
News crews descended on Atlas Machine and Supply on October 21, for a news conference for U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul hosted by the company at its Louisville facility. Rich Gimmel, owner and President of Atlas, says the media missed the mark in their coverage of the event, and as a consequence the public was the victim of "pack journalism."
Gimmel backs up the charge in the opinion piece below. His comments are even more credible given that he worked for many years as a news reporter and in news management before joining the family business.
Pack Journalism: Alive and Well in 2010
By- Rich Gimmel
In 1973, Timothy Crouse coined the term “pack journalism” in his remarkably insightful book, The Boys on the Bus,which chronicled news coverage of the 1972 presidential contest between Richard Nixon and George McGovern.
As a writer for Rolling Stone, Crouse detailed the tendency of what we now call the “mainstream media” to all think alike, to cover the same issues, and basically say the same things about the same issues – all for fear of straying from “the pack” and appearing to be “odd man out” on an issue.
He noted that, because of this tendency, political reporters had “a very limited usefulness as political observers, by and large, for what they knew best was not the American electorate but the tiny community of the press plane, a totally abnormal world” that resembled the like-minded thinking of a New England hamlet.
As a result, the Nixon White House, led by its notorious press secretary Ron Ziegler, was able to control the message of the day while diverting attention away from issues that really counted for something.
Like a piece of raw meat thrown before a pack of dogs, Ziegler would throw out a sidebar issue (such as the past psychiatric treatment of Tom Eagleton, McGovern’s running mate) and the pack would all run off after it in the same direction, turning their backs on the real issues of the day like the Vietnam War and Watergate – which, unbelievably never became a meaningful issue until after the election.
On October 21, I was able to witness that pack journalism is alive and well in coverage of Kentucky politics. The American Family Business Institute invited senate candidate Rand Paul to hold a news conference at our company, Atlas Machine and Supply, Inc., in Louisville.
The focus was to be Paul’s pledge to eliminate the Estate Tax, which, under current law, will be reinstated at its highest levels next year. It’s a ticking time bomb for any family business in this country in which the owner dies after January 1. At that time, federal and state governments will have the right to seize more than half the net assets of many businesses just because the owner dies, and even though no money otherwise changes hands.
This is a huge issue. It’s a job-killer and a primary reason for the demise of family businesses and family farms in the past. It’s also one of the main reasons Louisville no longer has any major locally-owned media.
We were ecstatic at the turnout for our news conference. Some two-dozen reporters and photographers showed up. We thought this issue would finally get some meaningful attention.
The head of the Family Business Institute, Dick Patten and I explained the seriousness of the issue and its potential destructive economic impact. We made what we thought was a compelling case worthy of discussion.
Incredibly, not a single reporter present wanted to talk about this issue.
Can you guess what the reporters present determined to be the pressing issue of the time? That’s right, Aqua Buddha – a college prank that took place 30 years ago that even its “victim” claims has been overblown.
Despite record deficits, a crashing economy, double-digit unemployment in Louisville, and sinking consumer confidence, the Kentucky press corps determined that Aqua Buddha is our most pressing issue. Sadly, there was virtually no coverage of the Estate Tax issue in the ensuing coverage.
Our employees who attended this event were absolutely astounded by priorities and behavior of the press corps. One of our people compared it to a “pack of dogs”, even though he’d never heard of Tim Crouse’s book.
With this as an example, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that members of the media rank right down there with used car salesmen on the scale of public trust.
Pack journalism is indeed alive and well in Kentucky. Our employees witnessed that in dramatic and convincing fashion at this event.
# # #
Atlas News : 2010-10-25
