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Cable Dominates News by Blowing Up Stories

But print reporters dig up the stories that play on TV

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 2, 2008 7:16 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Twenty-four-hour cable networks set the news agenda by turning stories "from brushfire to raging conflagration," Paul Farhi writes in the American Journalism Review. Particularly during presidential campaigns, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC pull stories from newspapers and web sites and make them hot by running them day and night. But telling this to print reporters sets off instant debate.

Newspapers control the cycle by digging up fresh news, they say, but Farhi counters that print newsrooms usually run cable in the background—while newspapers don't clutter desks at CNN. One Washington Post editor even told Farhi that papers should pay more attention to cable: “The people we're trying to sell the paper to," he said, "are more likely to be watching some portion of cable news than reading the New York Times.”

The senior vice president of news-gathering at the Fox Business Network, and a colleague are in the control room during the debut of Fox Business Morning on Monday, Oct. 15, 2007 in New York.
The senior vice president of news-gathering at the Fox Business Network, and a colleague are in the control room during the debut of Fox Business Morning on Monday, Oct. 15, 2007 in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Control room personnel work in the CNN studios in New York, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008, during the Iowa Caucuses.
Control room personnel work in the CNN studios in New York, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008, during the Iowa Caucuses.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A mobile phone receives a broadcast from a 24-hour news channel. The presence of television news in newsrooms everywhere may have in impact on coverage through osmosis.
A mobile phone receives a broadcast from a 24-hour news channel. The presence of television news in newsrooms everywhere may have in impact on coverage through "osmosis."   (Getty Images)
Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball during the commercial break of the show's taping.
Chris Matthews of MSNBC's "Hardball" during the commercial break of the show's taping.   (KRT Photos)
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"We may not be devoting enough energy to understanding what people are watching and engaging with, and that we can add value to." - Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post national editor

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