Advertising has been a major part of American news culture for centuries. In fact, what is considered the first newspaper advertisement appeared in the “Boston News-Letter” in 1704. Television news, even during its inception, also had advertising.
On Feb. 16, 1949, the “Camel News Caravan” started programming. This was a nightly 15-minute news broadcast sponsored by the Camel cigarette company. From 1962 to 1981 Walter Cronkite was the anchor of the “CBS Evening News;” He was called “the most trusted man in America”. During the early years of his show, he directly read the advertising on air. Advertising has been a critical part of television news since its inception. Showing a news audience a product in exchange for considerable sums of money is a lucrative business. This relationship was not, however, always as deeply rooted as it is now. On June 1., 1980, Ted Turner changed news and the relationship between news companies and advertisers forever. He launched the first 24-hour cable news program, CNN (literally Cable News Network). Thus began the bizarre phenomena of 24-hour news.
At its core, 24-hour news is a ridiculous concept. There are not enough events every day to fill 24 hours worth of journalism. The news is supposed to be a place where the day’s events are collected, analyzed, and made coherent for the public by professionals. Information should not be published without proper contextualization and analysis. In order to fill time, cable news needs to be flexible with its definition of news.
The proliferation of cable news channels of all political persuasions has created a culture of fast-paced American news. When watching 24-hour news, it is hard not to be cynical and pessimistic about the prospects of the nation. This is not beneficial for democracy or the mental health of individuals who consume this type of media. Living in fear is a recipe for disaster.
Comparatively, when you turn on British television news, which does not run advertisements due to government funding, they are stuffy, boring, and say that most things are generally okay. Regardless of if that is true or not, it is certainly less interesting. It is more exciting to hear that important and consequential events are occurring right now than to hear that it was a slow news day and not very much happened. British news also does not always have “breaking” news playing. They feature stories about artists, activists, and Bohemians from across the world all the time. It creates a more balanced and interesting product.
Cable news companies are also encouraged to create large narratives over days and weeks to keep viewers watching and invested in the story. More investment means more eyes on the advertisements. This was best exemplified by the lead-up to the Mueller Report in 2019. The report was the culmination of several years of a government probe into Russian involvement with the 2016 Trump campaign. In the months ahead of the publishing of the report, nightly news broadcasts were creating ever more complex ideas and theories about what was contained and what the implications of it would be. After it was published there was a race to see who could get on air about it first. The flurry of op-eds and articles in the days after the publishing of the report was a sight to behold. While the report had a lot of important implications, it was not a country-shattering bombshell that would either secure or destroy the roots of American democracy. This example is one of the best cases against 24-hour news as a concept. Given the fact that being first on air was the biggest priority, a lot of conflicting reports about the contents of the report entered the airwaves. And thus, the contents of an easily accessible document became a political argument. The news constantly questioning the validity of the report paved the way for American government institutions to be viewed as politically partisan. We live with the result of that distrust every day. Being first to report the story was important because whoever was on air first had the most eyes watching and thus made the most advertising revenue. In the cable news system, news and journalistic integrity are beholden to ratings rather than informing the electorate effectively. That is the fallacy of 24-hour news.
This same thing happens with the smallest and most inconsequential of stories every day. Cable news companies can not find enough news to make it between commercial breaks, so they take innocuous events and blow them up to national importance. This type of journalism would make true, honest newsmen like Walter Cronkite and Edward Murrow roll over in their graves. Unfortunately, this is not a problem with one news company or another, it is a problem with 24-hour news as a concept. The companies will never change as they have a responsibility to their shareholders to keep the line going up. But they should have a responsibility to the people, to give the news of the day in the most accurate and informative way possible. An effective democracy relies on an electorate that is informed by news media who value the unvarnished truth.
