We’ve all heard it. The Christian Right says our social ills are rooted in the “lamestream media.” The Left jumps on the media-bashing bandwagon when the subject is outlets like Fox News. You can bet your home theater that legitimate criticism abounds for all media outlets. Satirist Jon Stewart has created a cottage industry out of harshly criticizing both Fox News and CNN.
Recently, a dear friend requested a phone conversation about our differing views on a hot topic. Along the way, my friend used a tired cliché but with a twist: “The problem is the media. We need more competition so that it forces them to be honest.”
Wait, what?
To assert we need more competition in the media is like saying grains of sand need more competition. Furthermore, blaming American media is to forget the basics of capitalism: The market sells to demand.
Brad Bull
What is it Americans demand? We find one answer in the gripping 2015 documentary “Best of Enemies.” The film reports that, headed into the 1968 presidential conventions, ABC News was in third place in the ratings only because there were not four networks. Unable to afford gavel-to-gavel coverage of the conventions, ABC decided to bring in two archrivals to debate the issues.
William F. Buckley Jr., raised in New England wealth, sired modern conservatism — even if a different sort than the strain seen in MAGA. Gore Vidal, also raised in New England wealth, could hardly have been more liberal in contrast to the strict-Catholic Buckley; he wrote sexually explicit satires that included affirmations of homosexuality.
At the Republican convention in Miami, Buckley arrived overconfident and underprepared, and Vidal calmly but firmly eviscerated him. Humbled Buckley dived into preparation for the Democratic convention in Chicago. Vidal then sprung the trap.
In one of the most iconic and pivotal moments in American media history, Vidal badgered until the preacher-of-self-control Buckley snapped. On live television, Buckley suddenly fulminated the line that altered American media: “Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I’ll sock you in the goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.”
It being on ABC, relatively few people saw it. The next day, though, the print media described the catfight. And guess what. ABC rocketed in the ratings. All the other outlets took note. In addition to the truism “sex sells,” bloodsport — even verbal bloodsport — also sells. Media outlets make their money on advertising; having more viewers yields more dollars, so they air what we will engage with.
Media outlets make their money on advertising; having more viewers yields more dollars, so they air what we will engage with.
The Buckley-Vidal cockfight provided verbal violence tinged with sexual references, and the media learned we like both in political discourse, too. They keep giving it to us because we keep asking. Michael Jackson was right about the place for problem-solving to start. The cure to most social problems begins with the person in the mirror.
Around 2014, I attended a state conference for counselors. A panel of governor-appointed officials addressed the raging opioid epidemic. A physician said, “The problem is all these television shows like Breaking Bad that glamorize drug use.” A large swath of my well-educated colleagues started applauding. What? To say Breaking Bad glamorizes drug use is like saying vomiting glamorizes food.
After the conference, I approached the panel. I told them that, due to past adverse reactions, I had asked not to be offered narcotics after surgery. However, a recovery room nurse got very insistent that I take half an oxycodone. Fortunately, I had enough consciousness to firmly insist she send in her supervisor.
The physician on the panel got visibly angry and said, “If we don’t stay on top of patients’ pain, the insurance companies ding us.” I thought, “Oh, poor baby. Is wittle doctor scared of big bad insurance company? No, you son of a bitcoin. It’s not a TV show driving this epidemic; it’s YOU and people like you.” We now know that Purdue Pharma and its Sackler-family owners settled a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit over their alleged fueling of the epidemic through manipulation of a largely compliant medical system.
Yes, it’s popular to applaud accusations against the media. After the July 2025 U.S. bombing of Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth spent several minutes castigating the media for jumping the gun on bomb damage assessments. However, it was President Trump who had, within hours of the strikes, used words like “obliterated.”
Hegseth also had the temerity to blame the media for leaks from Pentagon or White House personnel. That’s like blaming a wall for having graffiti. He repeatedly asked why the media, CNN in particular, were not covering particular aspects of the strikes. CNN masterfully rebutted the accusations with a montage (starting at 1:43) showing they had said exactly the things Hegseth — a former Fox News host — accused them of omitting.
Remember back in elementary school, when someone cried, “Who farted?” We learned some truisms: “Smeller’s the feller” and “The one who smelt it dealt it.” So, no. More competition will not create a healthier media, because they aren’t the only ones eating the cafeteria’s beans.
More competition will not create a healthier media, because they aren’t the only ones eating the cafeteria’s beans.
The “cafeteria” will serve what we order. That said, drug dealers — whether in baggy jeans or lab coats — are a scourge, and so are the media outlets when they foster verbal bloodsport rather than constructive dialogue.
Let’s face it. We all fart from time to time. Avoiding doing it indiscreetly requires being aware of what’s going on inside ourselves. However, if what’s inside us gets inflicted on our neighbors, we need to take responsibility.
In our conversation, my Christian friend said, “That’s very helpful. I didn’t know all that.” Constructive dialogue can happen when we are open to changing our minds. Though I don’t know how an all-knowing divinity has a change of mind, scripture reports even God being open to a change of mind. If God is open to change rather than blame, perhaps we should be, too.
— Brad Bull earned a doctorate in child and family studies from the University of Tennessee. His pre-dissertation thesis was on the use of film as a therapeutic device, and his dissertation examined how parents teach children about and through television.