The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media

Gladstone uses two important images to illustrate the role of journalists in American society. The first, from German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer describes journalists as dogs because they bark “whenever anything moves” (35). In the book, Neufeld portrays journalists, including Gladstone's character who pees on a TV news broadcast, as mischievous dogs. Gladstone acknowledges that Schopenhauer's comparison may be apt, confessing that journalists can be “shallow [...] trivial and hysterical” (36), much like excitable dogs. However, if the media are a mirror, these tendencies come from consumers. Gladstone offers as evidence studies that show well-reported “serious policy stories” (37) hold viewer's attention just as much as “car crashes” (37). Gladstone also notes the flexibility in public attitude toward the press' tendency to report whichever salacious news story comes their way. This depends not on the “importance or truth of their story” (40) but on the “public's mood” (40). 

Senator Eugene McCarthy offers the second image of journalists: the press as “a bunch of blackbirds—all on a wire” (45). Once one bird flies to a wire and "doesn't get electrocuted" (45), the other birds will follow. Congress represents the “safest landing strip” (45) for journalists because it provides a noncontroversial way to “challenge or criticize the White House” (45). Sometimes, though, access to even this perch is “blocked” (46), either through litigation or intimidation. Gladstone offers the examples of Big Tobacco and the post-9/11 fallout. Journalists have a chance to “fly onto those hot wires all on their own” (46), but many did not.