Editorial January 23, 1995 Issue

Prayer for the press

Russ Gerber

Network television news in the United States used to be dignified, according to Robert MacNeil, coanchor of PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. But that's changed, he believes. The standard has been declining. And, according to recent surveys, many people agree.

Mr. MacNeil feels a large part of the problem is the lower standards of the competition—tabloid television, entertainment television, and so forth. Their standards "have gradually infected what used to be the strict, dignified standards of network news" (Time, October 24, 1994). At the same time, it's refreshing to see one of the ways in which the News Hour anchors counter the downward trend—the respect they have for their interview guests. "We would not beat up on our guests or embarrass them," writes coanchor Jim Lehrer in his book A Bus of My Own.

A declining standard on the part of some in the news media is by no means a recent trend, nor are the noble efforts by others to maintain and promote a high standard something we've seen only lately. One of the reasons for the establishment of The Christian Science Monitor almost ninety years ago was to give the world a better example—a truthful, balanced, comprehensive perspective on world affairs.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

As a teenager I was introduced to Christian Science, and soon...