Marvin Kalb gave a talk at Fordham in which he discussed the importance of the media in maintaining a democracy. warned against future tensions between the media and President-Elect Donald Trump (Courtesy of Flickr).
By Victor Ordonez
In light of the current polarization in politics, esteemed American journalist Marvin Kalb told students that journalists will continue to serve the community as watchful protectors from corruption and censorship.
“Journalism is an essential piece of our democracy,” said Kalb at an event hosted by the communications and media studies department on Nov. 17 in Faculty Memorial Hall. Kalb, a senior advisor at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, gave students with advice and insight into the future of journalism.
A 30 year veteran of CBS News and NBC News, he predicted that media relationships with President-elect Donald Trump in years to come will be tense as journalists scuffle with the president elect over issues of transparency. Trump broke recent tradition by refusing to allow journalists to cover his first meeting with President Barack Obama.
Kalb said the public wants transparency from the Trump administration and he expects that Trump will communicate mostly with those who he likes and feels are treating him fairly.
“Trump will choose those he will favor, and those he will not,” he said.
With this, Kalb addressed recent prejudices aimed towards journalists.“When people say disparaging things about journalism, please do not listen to them.” said Kalb.
Kalb said Trump will have an unprecedented influence over the media during his presidency. “Within a year or so,” said Kalb, “[Trump] will have the media eating out of his hand.”
The media also failed in some ways in this election, according to Kalb. For instance, Trump’s ubiquitous media presence during the presidential election allowed him to generous airtime on many networks.
“Donald Trump was the acting executive producer of every cable news network,” said Kalb.
Trump nearly doubled news networks’ coverage of the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Studies by the 2016 Campaign Television Tracker show that Donald Trump was mentioned by television news programs 1.2 million times.
Trump also used the rise of social media to his advantage, a platform that journalists often use to promote their stories.
“Social media is centrally important in determining and defining contemporary journalism,” said Kalb.
Social media has also abetted the proliferation of fake news stories and publications, which have become increasingly controversial election the election.
Kelsey Micklas, FCRH 18, was a student attendee and journalism major concerned about the current state of news media.
“In earlier days journalism was vital and so well done,” said Micklas, “I feel like we are losing some of that.”
