By Christian Cullen, Staff Writer

It is ironic that I am writing about the state of news media in a newspaper, but it is still worth talking about. Simply put, we are in a bad place when it comes to where we get our news. 

Over the past 20-30 years, we have shifted from reporting on issues in our world to figuring out how to maximize the entertainment value from the issues. It is less news at this point than infotainment. 

Think of the major news networks in America today. CNN, FOX, MSNBC and the like have become less and less focused on pointed discussions based in fact and instead moved towards debate style shows, while also capitalizing on the incredibly fast way that news cycles work nowadays. It is less about who is the best or who we can trust and more about who had the best ratings last quarter. 

Our parents’ generation grew up with Walter Cronkite at the helm. There was an implicit trust in the news back then. There was another item of that older generation that held more social prominence: the local newspaper. 

At risk of sounding like a cranky old man, newspapers used to not just be something your grandparents read but pillars of a local community. The decline of newspapers is a complex issue well beyond the scope of this little opinion piece. What can be noted is that they are in a mass decline. 

With cable news and the internet, the need for a paper boy to throw the newspaper at your door everyday is no longer there. On the surface it seems to be evolution. The newspaper is a relic of a bygone era that will go the way of the dodo. 

However, these local newspapers make up an important part of the national news ecosystem; to get rid of them is to throw the ecosystem into chaos.

Think about the big, popping headlines you see on networks like CNN or FOX. What is often in a smaller font is a credit and acknowledgement being given to a local newspaper. While on their face, your local “Gazette” or “Journal” just seems to be a holdover, they are actually quite important, and even more overlooked. 

As newspapers continue to struggle, it is only a matter of time until either private interests start buying newspapers or national news declines due to the death of local papers to draw from. 

While option one does not seem so bad, I have massive worries. For example, you can see the change in tone from the Washington Post after Amazon bought the paper a few years back. The Op-Ed section seems more and more to be representative of the neoliberal order and maintaining the economic status quo. While it is the Op-Ed section, it is still worrisome; this is compounded by the recent one-day strike by the Post staff. It should not be controversial to desire to keep newspapers from being bought by big corporations.

This decline of news into infotainment is especially seen in sports media over the last decade. 

In combination with the rise of social media, sports shows shifted from discussions of what happened on the field to who could say the most outlandish thing to go viral on social media. This is most seen at ESPN, as their talk shows are rarely focused on the actual sports, and instead, we have sports talk guys like Kendrick Perkins or Chris Russo just spitballing whatever they can. 

Sports media is less about sports now, and instead just wants to maximize the entertainment value of their on air talent. First take, first and foremost, is a show, not a place for information. 

There have even been more examples of ESPN caring more about their on-air talent than journalistic rigor. Pat McAfee, who’s podcast is licensed by ESPN, said he would not bring Aaron Rodgers back onto the podcast for the rest of the NFL season as Rodgers had incorrectly insinuated that Jimmy Kimmel was on the Epstein flight logs. Rodgers was back on the show the next day, and ESPN has not seemed to take necessary steps to punish McAfee. ESPN seems to be more focused on the ability of their on-air talent to influence headlines and coverage than the company itself to pursue rigorous and engaging reporting on topics in the world of sports. 

Clearly there are some problems. I honestly do not have a specific answer, outside of being sure to support your local paper, wherever that may be. We should also try to hold corporations, whether that is ESPN or CNN, to a higher standard of journalistic rigor than they have shown as of late. 

I just hope one day to be able to tell my grandkids about a news anchor like mine did about Walter Cronkite. I will definitely not be telling my kids about Jake Tapper, Sean Hannity, Stephen A. Smith or any of the like. Infotainment will be the death of true news reporting, and I hope we can figure out a way to keep information separate from entertainment.