Letter: Media not reporting the news; they’ve taken to shaping it

Friday, Sept. 11, 1998 | 9:46 a.m.

In poll after poll, we, the American public, kept telling the media that Clinton's failure to be a faithful husband had little to do with his ability to run this country. Although his approval rating remains high, the media continued to bombard us with hour after hour of "news shows" telling us how we really feel.

If there is any weakening of the presidency, it has been created by the media saying it repeatedly. At what point did the media go from "The people have a right to know," to "The media have a right to ratings"?

"Media circus" is an overused phrase, but appropriate at times. We are not just given the facts about an event, we are treated to well-dressed, attractive people swamping us with "news shows" about the event.

Hour after hour about the most trivial bit of minutia about which no one is concerned. For example: The tie. Was it a signal? What did it mean? What did Hillary Rodham Clinton think about the tie? Who cares?

The media should not be subject to ratings. Their purpose is to report the news, not create or be the news.

I recently have been turning off the news because it has become too tedious and aggravating to watch. There are far too many "news shows" that all need to fill up an hour or more, and to justify their own existence.

As for the talk about possible impeachment of Clinton, if we start firing people for cheating on their spouses, there won't be many left in the work force. I wonder how many in Congress would still be around.

With 70 percent of married people admitting to at least one indiscretion it's fairly clear that infidelity has little or no effect on a person's ability to do his or her job.

Maybe someone should dig into the private lives of members of the media. Not just report it but plaster it across newspapers and television for endless weeks, going over every little detail again and again.

I think the media need to get back to just reporting the news, and stop telling me how I feel.

Mr. Cronkite, where are you?

Peggy Evans