A Failure of the Network News Star System

The arrival of hard consequences for these men may have come too late in the news industry, but media organizations are unquestionably leading the national reckoning now underway. For the news business, this is the way it has to be: Its main product, after all, is integrity, which, in the case of the networks, is personified by those who sit behind the desk. Once the audience’s trust is lost, the entire enterprise falls apart.

In op-ed pages and on cable news, progressive commentators are questioning why television personalities, news executives and Hollywood heavyweights are losing their jobs while the politicians facing accusations — a list that also includes Sen Al Franken (D-MN) and Rep John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) -- remain gainfully employed. But the two worlds have different accountability structures: Politicians will not get the hook from the public stage if their core supporters will stick with them, provided that enough of them step into the voting booth. Journalists and news executives, on the other hand, must answer to their audiences — which overwhelmingly comprise women for the morning shows hosted by Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose. They must also take into account their shareholders, their advertisers, their staff members and their peers, who are the ones who have been aggressively digging into these stories. The networks bear extra responsibility because they did so much to make them into the larger-than-life — and, therefore, not-true-to-real-life — characters they became.