University of Washington's Bennett delivers 46th annual Crosman Lecture
By Ashley Inman

Photo by Ashley Inman Lance W. Bennett exchanges points of view with audience members after presenting the Crosman Lecture. His talk included critical observations of the American press.

Lance W. Bennett, the 46th annual Crosman lecturer, criticized U.S. newspapers, charging that "when the U.S. democracy most needs an independent, critical public voice, the American press vies not to provide the facts."

Bennett, a media and politics scholar from the University of Washington and the founder and director of the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, delivered the Crosman Lecture in March. He recently wrote the book "When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News" with co-authors Regina G. Lawrence and Steven Livingston.

The American press is predominately owned and operated by private corporations that, like all businesses, are pressured by profit, Bennett said.

"The Dallas Morning News laid off over 200 reporters," he noted. "It was once one of the best papers in the country and is quickly becoming one of the worst because it simply couldn't keep the profits up to satisfy the owners of the media chain."

"Tell me you're objective, and I'll doubt you immediately," said Bennett, who argues that journalists cannot be objective because the very process adhered to by the media corporations, whom journalists work for, is dominated by official spin. "The press are spinnable," he said, adding that objectivity in journalism is truly an illusion because, in order to be objective, one needs the facts, and facts are "up for grabs these days."

Bennett said official sources are required in order for a story to advance in mainstream media outlets. "My theory is that the press is so rooted in its operating definition of objectivity that it can't change." Different renditions of the same stories appear in newspapers across the country as a result, he said. "So the journalistic norm of objectivity or balance in effect means that circles of authority, or government, become the basis or a kind of the surrogate for objectivity," he said. In his model, he said "reality" is power.

"When there is high conflict in high power circles in government, you get more diverse voices in the news," he said, using the abortion debate as an example. "Groups on both sides of the issue that represent large numbers of active citizens actually get voices in the news story."

The theory works both ways, he said; when there's low conflict in the elite decision-making circles in government, there are fewer voices and ideas in the news, he said, describing unbalanced press coverage in 2002 and 2003 while the U.S. House debated whether or not to go to war. "Why? The Democrats took a pass," refusing to argue against a popular idea.

"Because officials have direct power over journalists that we don't see, they can give or deny journalists stories," Bennett said.

A "perfect storm" like Hurricane Katrina, the example Bennett used in his book and during the lecture, seems to be the only force that can penetrate the press' process of obtaining an official version of the event because "the government was on vacation."

Journalists were telling officials what was happening in the wake of Katrina because the officials had not a clue, he said. Katrina created an opportunity for journalists to report a story based on a true rendition of reality – they were in a "no-spin zone."

"Americans watched a rare moment of unspun reporting," he said. "It was refreshing even if tragic in focus. And there was some brief discussion that maybe this would change journalism on those blogs that I was tracking. Journalists thought maybe this is a breakthrough moment. But then, slowly, slowly, slowly, reality returned, and the spin machine geared up again, and the surge is working, and we're on the path to freedom in the Middle East."

Bennett's research has spanned three decades and is focused on journalism and press-government relations, communication and culture movements, and on transnational activism, digital media and civic engagement.

The Crosman memorial lecture was established in 1952 in honor of Ralph L. Crosman, one of the most distinguished faculty mentors and administrators of the University of Colorado's School of Journalism.