Catch-22 is a satirical novel published in 1961. it was written by American author, Joseph Heller and has been frequently cited as one of the greatest literary works of the 20th century. The setting for the novel is a B-25 bomber squadron stationed in the Mediterranean Theater during WWII. The novel's title refers to a plot device that is repeatedly invoked in the story.
Catch-22 starts as a set of paradoxical requirements that insures the airmen of the bomber squadron cannot escape their hazardous duty even if they suffer from combat fatigue known during that time period as shell shock. In the book, Catch-22 is a military rule typifying bureaucratic operation and reasoning: “If one is crazy ,one can be discharged from the Army Air Corps. However, one has to apply for the discharge, and applying demonstrates that one is not crazy. As a result, one will not be discharged.”
For several decades after Heller's novel was published, the term Catch-22 was embraced by society as examples of problematic situations for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem. A perfect example today is the unsustainable business model used by the three historical icons of East Coast newspapers, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquire, and The Washington Post. The Big Three are all bleeding red ink today as victims of Catch-22. Let me explain:
Back during my high school years, our civics teacher used The Big Three as examples of professional journalism at its best. A decade later my college business writing professor echoed the same compliment. However, as my engineering career progressed during the next fifty years, I found myself traveling throughout the country where I was exposed to a potpourri of small town daily and weekly papers.
As time rolled by a gradual but steady pattern emerged with The Big Three. Editorializing began to creep into the language of front page “reporting”. At first I thought my conservative values were making me oversensitive to this liberal bias I began to detect. However, in 2002 Bernard Goldberg's #1 bestselling book, “ Bias” reinforced my suspicion. One of Goldberg's critics pointed out that although 87% of press and T.V. reporters at that time were registered Democrats, “ their professional duty bound them to objectivity.” That statement reeked of arrogance and further defined the problem. Anyone who has ever studied psychology knows most bias is subliminal.
Earlier this week the New York Times reported the unanimous 19-0 vote by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee insisting that Congress be given input on U.S. negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Every Democrat joined every Republican in the unanimous vote.
What was revealing to me was the tone of the reader comments in response to the Times report. No less than 1150 NYT readers commented. Think about that number. Here in the Northern tier of Pennsylvania it's unusual for a front page article to generate more than a few letters to the editor or on-line comments. The vast majority of the Times reader comments were critical of the Committee vote, but only painted Republicans as the villains despite the unanimous nature of the vote.
This was another piece of empirical evidence of why the mainstream media papers, located in metropolitan cities, has drifted into liberal bias over the years. The over dependence of young reporters fresh out of local Ivy League journalism schools doesn't help the situation.
The Catch-22 Situation of these papers must be resolved to survive their downward spiral in overall readership.
If city papers continue to pander to their local metropolitan liberal readers they will continue to alienate readers across the country who are still, by a slight majority, right of center in political philosophy. The increase of on-line subscriptions for print media could accelerate that alienation. It will be interesting to see how the subscription numbers of the Big Three fare as on-line readership becomes more popular with lessening dependence on delayed U.S. Postal Service delivery to readers outside the publishing area.
I'd be remiss if I didn't take a moment to give a tip of the hat to the young professional reporting staffs of newspapers here in the Northern tier. Maybe their lack of exposure to prestigious Ivy League journalism academics resulted in a double reward. First, their heads were not filled with liberal/progressive ideology easily spotted by their readership. Old fashion objective journalism is still alive here in the Northern tier and equally important, the parents of those reporters didn't have their wallets flattened inadvertently assisting in the liberal indoctrination. I have never detected a political bias in any of the news articles written by the staff of local papers. Their opinions are reserved for the editorial pages.
Stratton Schaeffer is a retired consulting engineer and farmer who lives on Joe Hill.