"The media cannot ignore the rising tide of public complaint, indignation, and criticism ... and the growing lack of confidence by the people," said Gaines, paying tribute to the lecture’s namesake in his own "dismal assessment of the press."

Gaines’ speech, "A Fine Mess: Journalism in the Age of Monica," was delivered in the Old Main Chapel on April 22.

A 1970 graduate of the University of Michigan with degrees in English and psychology, Gaines has worked as a writer for Newsweek, produced a television show for public television in New York and is the author of two books.

Before becoming the corporate editor of Time Inc. in 1996, he was the managing editor of Time from 1992 to 1995 and was responsible for putting the magazine online. He was the first person to hold the managing editor and publisher positions of Life simultaneously.

Gaines also worked as the managing editor of People in the late 1980s. He is currently executive editor of Travel and Leisure Golf Magazine in Boulder, a joint effort by American Express and Time Warner Inc.

As an editor at Time, Life and People magazines, Gaines had a unique perspective on the problems undermining the public’s faith in the media.

"When working reporters get on the talk shows and let their prejudices and feelings hang out, they take off even the pretense of objectivity, of basing their statements on reported, triangulated facts, of giving fair weight to all sides -- and how then is the public to believe them when they have their reporter’s 'hat’ on?" he asked.

As managing editor of Time, Gaines forbade reporters from taking money from advertisers, TV talk shows and political and business groups. To his surprise and dismay, some Time reporters continued to do the Sunday morning talk-show circuit -- for free.

"The fact is, I didn’t go far enough. I should have stopped them from going altogether. Working journalists should not be talk-show pundits, and vice versa, for the obvious reason that it undermines the public’s belief that our reporting is fair and free from bias," he said.

Gaines also criticized business practices by media conglomerates that have lowered the standards of journalistic integrity. In the early 1980s, Time began giving away premiums -- free cameras and radios -- to attract new subscribers despite the fact the magazine was doing better than ever.

"In a terrible synchronicity with this business strategy, the editor started putting ice cream and cats on the cover, which did very well at the newsstands, certainly better than cultural malaise and the underpinnings of the oil crisis would have done."

After the premiums stopped working, circulation fell, and Time executives called for even softer news stories to try to increase sales. A domino effect ensued as Newsweek struggled to recoup its losses as well by offering softer stories.

Both magazines had in fact overmarketed themselves, and the result was a net loss of quality of news reporting, Gaines said.

"We live in a time not of information glut but of data glut -- how people are not really better informed but just ill-informed about more things; and how the proliferation of news outlets creates the need for newsmagazines," he said.

"I’d like to see the magazines return to their function of synthesis and analysis and leave scoopery to the newspapers and wire services. I’d like to see more large- and medium-sized newspapers refrain from jumping on the day’s big story with swarm coverage and spend more resources instead on journalism of a higher order, " he said.

The annual Crosman Lecture is a memorial to Ralph L. Crosman who worked as a teacher and industry critic at CU for 27 years after joining the faculty in 1921. He was the first director of the School, appointed in 1937.