Long and costly jury trials, and sometimes large judgments against the media, have produced a massive chilling effect on the press and replaced copy editors with copy attorneys. Jonathan Alter, media columnist for Newsweek , offers some additional reasons why important stories aren't covered. Alter also said some stories are not covered because they do not fit conventional definitions of news. I suggest it is time for journalism to rethink its traditional definitions of news. In a time of nuclear terrorism, environmental disaster, and economic doom, it is not news when a man bites a dog.
Real news is objective and reliable information about important events happening in society.
The widespread dissemination of such information will help people become better informed, and a better informed citizenry will demand, obtain, and benefit from an administration more concerned with substance than with image. Early in 1984, an ABC TV News correspondent in Rome came upon information that led him to believe that millions of lives were being threatened by drought and famine in Africa. He asked the home office in New York for permission to take his crew to Africa to get the story. The answer was no. Later, as we all now know, a BBC television crew, traveling through Ethiopia, captured the stark reality of children starving to death.