Journalism Goes Hollywood, Fourth Estate on Life Support

It’s the mainstay of the entertainment industry.

Take bits of creative fabrication, put them all together in celluloid form, and pass the whole thing off as reality.

Voila! A big-screen, little-screen, and/or digital-screen production is born.

Once upon a time entertainment fare didn’t infiltrate journalistic territory. Instead, it was happily confined to its own terrain.

And there was a kind of unwritten truth-in-advertising code within the journalism profession as well, secured by an internal bond of trust in news media venues across the culture.

Those days are long gone.

The dividing line between entertainment and news media has almost been completely obliterated, and nowhere is it more obvious than within the realm of politics.

So what happens when news journalism goes Hollywood?

Well, in the past professional journalists pretty much had a singular goal, which was actually outlined in the first draft of the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics, dated 1926, "Seek truth and report it."

It appears as though way too many journalists have chosen to ditch their reporter notepads and are now itching to get into the Hollywood production game.

Let’s look at how Tinsel Town has done things for decades.

Filmmakers select a story to tell. It can be an original idea, an extension of a previous artistic work, or myriad of other fanciful combinations.

Screenwriters author a script, which oftentimes undergoes multiple revisions to increase dramatic effect or enhance entertainment value.

Production designers and art directors create visuals and construct sets.

Locations are scouted and choice venues are selected.

Filming begins, with repeated scene shoots taking place so that the finest performances can be selected from the mix.

An extensive editing process occurs in which scenes are examined, and segments of footage can be re-arranged and/or cut out completely if so desired.

The movie is then assembled and delivered in its completed state.

Of course there’s a whole industry built on marketing the final product.

If we apply the above-outlined entertainment template to the news business, it begins to become clear as to what has occurred within a once-noble profession.

Journalism has gone Hollywood.

Some may be all to quick to ask, "So what’s the problem?"

The answer is simple.

The Fourth Estate is now on life support.

However, The Fourth Estate has, and always will be an essential component in keeping a free society free.

If The Fourth Estate truly dies, so does our liberty.

Traditionally, journalists have had an ethical obligation to inform the public, taking particular care to report truthfully and accurately.

They have also had an ethical obligation to clarify mistakes that are made and/or issue retractions.

As of late, the public hasn’t seen much of this at all.

Instead, the opposite has been occurring.

Here’s a glaring example:

Vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris recently sat down for an interview with CBS.

Following a less than sterling outing, it was discovered that the network had used some filmmaking techniques to give the vice president’s performance an extreme Hollywood makeover.

Interviewer Bill Whitaker had asked some rudimentary questions, but the responses given were woefully insufficient.

That’s when the network went to work on editing and rearranging her remarks, ultimately making her appear to say something that she didn’t and to be someone that she isn’t.

As a promotion for the segment, the network had released raw footage of her answer to a question about Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Frankly, it was embarrassingly bad.

But when CBS later aired the same question and answer session, viewers were presented with a new and improved version of her response.

The network had evidently gone to great lengths to produce an edited, i.e., quasi-fictional response, one that had been digitally cut from an earlier part of the interview and re-inserted in the "preferred" place.

Also present in the edited version was some dubbed-in narration, which served to cover up some of her less than perfect responses.

Those who truly still care about the future of journalism, including the New York Post editorial board, have demanded that CBS release the full transcript of the interview.

And according to the Post, former CBS staffers are demanding an independent investigation into the matter.

CBS is not alone in jumping into the Hollywood editing game.

Action News on 6 ABC (located in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania) aired two different answers from the vice president regarding her economic policies, and then went on to publish the edited version on its website.

Times sure have changed.

So-called news outlets are routinely copying the fanciful storytelling and elaborate production of liberal Hollywood.

Fiction and fabrication are now unapologetically presented as fact and truth.

Yes, time is running out.

But rest assured, there are still a lot of us out here who will never stop hoping for a Hollywood happy ending.

That is, a return to the truth.

James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax TV Hollywood. Read James Hirsen's Reports — More Here.