News not a black-and-white issue

By Allan R. Andrews, Editor,
Pacific Stars and Stripes, Tokyo, Japan

First published January 5, 1997

Editors operate in the face of persistent criticism that what we report is too negative, too dark, too pessimistic.

Cries are constant that our world needs more good news.

I've heard this argument from family, professional colleagues, public affairs officers, business people, strangers in a subway conversation, chaplains and, most recently, from a Navy captain.

The criticism usually comes as a question such as ``Why don't you guys report all the good things people are doing?''

This line of argument is particularly important to the military, who are the prime audience of a newspaper like Pacific Stars and Stripes and who recently have been rocked by stories of rape and harassment: Consider Tailhook, Okinawa, Aberdeen and the Citadel. Just a mention of the key word conjures images of sailors, Marines, soldiers and students at a military academy making negative news.

Certainly that's not what the military services and the schools that provide many of their officers are all about.

Civilians level similar charges against the media. A typical complaint is that we overemphasize stories focussing on violence and crime.

This, by the way, is not a criticism aimed at this newspaper alone; most news organizations take similar jabs.

A small town newspaper at which I worked regularly ran a page of brief stories from around the nation, which was sarcastically referred to as the ``dead baby page,'' implying that the bulk of the stories focused on the human tragedy of death, murder and the abuse of other humans.

Attempts by journalists to deal with this criticism have been awful, largely because we journalists, like many of our critics, don't take time during a busy day to ask ourselves what defines ``news'' anyway.

Instead, we usually deny the charge, throw out the bulk of our sports and entertainment ``good'' news as defense, and flee behind some variation on the theme that we mirror the realities of society.

It's not that simple. News is not a black-and-white affair.

Let me examine the criticism and journalism's defense by taking a recent big story and emphasizing an important point about the nature of news in general and so-called good news in particular.

Boeing, the world's largest producer of commercial airliners, recently announced a plan to merge with McDonnell Douglas, the third-largest producer of commercial aircraft and the second-largest defense contractor in the United States (behind Lockheed Martin).

Is this good news or bad?

It's probably good news to a Boeing stockholder in Seattle, but it may provide bad news to an assembly-line worker at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis.

For the stockholder, the merger probably means greater earnings. For the worker, the threat of layoffs looms large.

Is it in the national interest of the United States to allow this merger? That's the question antitrust lawyers have to answer, and the whole enterprise of antitrust law is itself an outgrowth of arguments over what's good and bad for American society.

I'm pointing at the nature of news. Frankly, most events in the world, even tragic events, have two news sides.

Media have in recent decades made big news out of the draw of the lottery. Hundreds of stories appear annually about citizens who overnight become millionaires or near-millionaires with the purchase of a lucky ticket.

Is this good news or bad?

What seems incredibly good news has been chronicled as leading to some of the most bitter disappointment in American society. An inordinate number of lottery winners live to be disappointed, depressed and often broke. Winning a lottery is not always good news.

Of course, as many of my colleagues have said when I've pointed this out: ``I know, but I'd still like the chance to become depressed and disappointed.''

Let me take on a tougher analysis: The experience of women trying to revolutionize the all-male admission policy at The Citadel provides several tragic moments.

Most recently, two women cadets who suffered physical problems in training disclosed troubling stories of hazing in the ranks, including murder threats.

This is a pessimistic and negative story, and when I first read it I had negative thoughts about the South Carolina institution, which has a track record of resisting the effort of women to join its ranks.

But some good news has come out of this story in The Citadel's response. Two cadets have been thrown out of the school and five others have been removed from Echo company, of which the school's four women cadets are members.

The subtle point of bad news is that its being reported frequently prompts good news responses.

Reporting of tragedies aboard airplanes leads to greater airplane safety measures; reporting of auto deaths leads to increased automotive safety; reporting of murder frequently prompts improved police protection.

Out of the tragic bad news of rape in Okinawa has come good news of the Marines' efforts to educate and sensitize the Corps to ethical behavior and host-nation issues; international issues that were dormant are getting attention.

Yes, there was a tragic cost, but an immeasurable cost in deceit and waste results when such tragedies go unreported.

My growing conviction is that news is neither good nor bad in a final, objective sense; it's more like history.

There really isn't good history or bad history; history at its best is a record, and in the chronicle of human time, what has been judged bad in history has often resulted in good for humankind.

The media can and should go on reporting tragedy and ugliness in human affairs. In addition to the sunny side of life, there is a dark and troubled side that must be confronted and brought to light. This is not always bad news.

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Allan R. Andrews can be contacted at arandrews@aol.com