TV producer bites the hand that feeds him

October 22, 1997
Web posted at: 10:49 p.m. EDT (0249 GMT)

'Where are the other voices?'

From Correspondent Mark Scheerer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Singer Jackson Browne wrote a song last year called "Information Wars" that television producer Danny Schecter is using in a campaign to bring attention to what he feels is wrong with TV news.

Browne is so supportive of the project that he wrote the forward to Schecter's new book -- part memoir, part manifesto -- called "The More You Watch, the Less You Know."

"It's a war," says Browne. "It's THE war. It's the war for your mind. It's the only war."

CNN's Mark Scheerer reports

"People are not being informed about the issues," says Schecter. "There's less and less time devoted to in-depth coverage, to investigative reporting, to the kind of journalism that's memorable.

"The seven companies that own and control the media in America and shape the coverage of the rest of the world have to be held to a higher standard with more accountability."

Don Hewitt, the creator of "60 Minutes," decries the diluted news magazines that compete with -- and might almost be mistaken for -- entertainment programs.

"I think that the line that used to be drawn between news and entertainment is now blurred," Hewitt says.

Like Don Henley's 1982 song "Dirty Laundry," Schecter has also produced a song about TV news. It's a rap song called "News Goo" and is on a CD with related songs.

'Where are the other voices?'

You'd expect such a move from a former rock radio news director who was so flustered while interviewing John Lennon and Yoko Ono that he forgot to plug in his mike.

"I believe that popular culture is often the best way to disseminate messages and information," Schecter says by way of explaining "News Goo."

Schecter has been a producer at CNN and at ABC's "20/20," and created the anti-apartheid record "Sun City." He is also the co-founder of Global Vision, which syndicates programs like "South Africa Now" and "Rights and Wrongs."

"Y'know, Bruce Springsteen has a song, '57 Channels and Nothing's On,'" he says. "You can go across the dial, you see very similar program formats. So where are the other voices? Where's the labor channels? Where's the channels for the people left out who are not watching and are turning off their TVs?

"When it comes to the media you have two choices: reaction or action."

Schecter says he's not out to savage television, but he makes no apologies if he offends some people.

"I like a lot of what's on television," he says. "I work in television. And of course I'm trying to get my message out on television. Is that a contradiction? So be it."

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