Marketability Meets the Press

John Balzar points out that we give the news media a 50% approval rating (“Sweetheart, Get Me Rewrite,” Commentary, Dec. 12). I would argue that the figure will climb as the “real” news content rises and the tabloid news content diminishes.

A simple analogy sums it up. The news business is a seesaw balancing act: On one side is the marketability of the current news; on the other is the news content itself. The news content theoretically should contain sufficient real news to keep the other end of the seesaw off the ground and, thus, the news organization solvent.

However, as the real news diminishes (no war, no major political events, etc.), sensational tabloid news is heaped onto the news content side of the seesaw in order to keep the other end up. The process reverses during times such as these, when Gary Condit and even O.J. Simpson are pushed to small corners of rear pages. During wartime, real news is sufficient to keep selling newspapers and ad space.

In the end, news organizations must be profitable, and the leaders of them must constantly wrestle with the competing claims of profitability and the responsible reporting of real news.

Brendan Morrissey

Manhattan Beach

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In his feeble attempt to explain why Americans distrust the media, Balzar unwittingly provides the answer. He states that “it is fashionable, if not mandatory, in partisan circles to bash the press.” In other words, if you bash the press you’re partisan. If you are the press you’re fair and balanced? I don’t think so.

Jackie Warner

Orange