All the Editorials Fit to Print: The Politics of “Newsworthiness”

Abstract

In the tradition of the Breed approach, the author and Chomnsky have put forward a "propaganda model" that spells out several market and structural factors that, in their view, powerfully shape the U.S. mass media's treatment of news and opinion. In this paper, the author argues, and presents empirical data in support for, the view that there is a dominant policy and/or ideological basis for decisions on newsworthiness in several areas of newsmaking in the U.S. mass media, which often overwhelm professional values. In the first section of the chapter, he discusses "professional values," "policy," and "ideology," and then describes and illustrates the ways in which policy and ideological bias manifest themselves and can provide the materials for testing. In the subsequent section, the author compares and analyzes the New York Time's coverage of Cuba and El Salvador for a six-week period in early 1990, using several criteria of objectivity, professionalism, and the influence of policy and ideology. This is clearly a small sample and will not in itself sustain major generalizations, but this material is suggestive.