Pincus believes journalism is in trouble due to its pursuit of the "false idols of fame and fortune." Too many editors and reporters are making TV appearances or are more focused on winning industry awards rather than breaking stories about issues and how they impact American society. Pincus points to Watergate, the "high water mark for newspapers," as playing a big part in ultimately triggering their downfall. The "celebrity of Woodward and Bernstein, along with their financial rewards" set new goals for the profession.
Watergate also aroused conservative supporters of the Nixon Administration. They demanded more conservative columnists and "equal treatment" in news columns for politicians and experts on both sides of the issue. That was an informal way of applying the fairness doctrine, which was required of the electronic media, to print, according to Pincus. It also put the press in a straight-jacket.
Pincus notes that American newspapers historically had a political point of view or were launched to back business or labor. Today's mainstream media strive to be "neutral, presenting both or all sides as it they were refereeing a game in which only the players — the government and its opponents can participate." The media are reduced to "common carriers, transmitters of other people’s ideas and thoughts, irrespective of import, relevance, and at times even accuracy."
Pincus says newspapers fail the public because they don’t set an agenda for candidates to take up: "At a time when it is most needed, the media and particularly newspapers have lost their voice."
Pincus takes on the media for being the "echo chamber" of government, which was not the intent of the First Amendment. His concern is that "American journalism has turned away from its own hard-won expertise and when readers are looking to us to explain the context of what is happening and what will happen next."
Pincus raps the emergence of a "PR society" in which "headlines come from events created by public relations—press conferences, speeches, press releases, canned reports and, worst of all, snappy comments by 'spokesmen' or 'experts.'" He wants reporters with the expertise and support to dig out their own news.
The CJR piece was adapted from a February speech that Pincus made at the American Academy in Berlin in February