Media in The Simpsons - Journalism

Journalism

The character Kent Brockman functions as The Simpsons's main character for news parodies. He was based on Los Angeles anchormen Hal Fishman and Jerry Dunphy, and modeled after anchorman Ted Koppel. Another influence on the character was The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Ted Baxter, played by Ted Knight. His role on The Simpsons is to host the news as the fictional television channel, Channel 6's anchorman. In addition to the news, he also hosts the programs Eye on Springfield and Smartline. In most of his appearances, he seems more interested in entertaining the viewers than informing them of real news. In "Homer Loves Flanders" Brockman calls the United States Army a "kill-bot factory" in a news broadcast. Mirkin said this was a joke the staff "particularly loved to do" because it pointed out how negative and mean-spirited news broadcasts can be, and how they are seemingly "always trying to scare everybody" by creating panic and depression. Turner said that "in Brockman's journalism, we see some of the modern news media's ugliest biases", of which he says are glibness, amplification, and sensationalism. MSN called Brockman one of the worst TV news anchors. Brockman is joined by Scott Christian and Arnie Pie on the Channel 6 news team. Originally, Scott Christian was the anchor and Brockman was the field reporter, but the show shifted focus to Brockman. Arnie Pie is a helicopter-based traffic reporter that sometimes help with field reports other than traffic.

A real-life journalist named Reid, who Gray interviewed for his book, states that the episode "Girly Edition" mirrors well how some journalists actually work. She said the episode shows "the ludicrous nature of, you know, what we do in a lot of things. The kids news with Bart and Lisa: I mean, you see them do really stupid stories about the news, and 'news you can use,' and 'how to get rid of your sheets when you wet them.' I mean, people really do stories like that." Steven Keslowitz writes in his book The World According to the Simpsons that the episode showcases the fact that "the viewing of attractive newscasters and the use of persuasive tones of voice often do have an impact on the minds of many intelligent members of American society." With that said, the episode parodies the relationship between hard and intelligent journalism championed by Lisa and the "Up Close and Personal" style preferred by Bart.

Similar to the show's parody of the Fox network, The Simpsons also makes jokes about Fox News. Near the beginning of the episode "The Fool Monty", a Fox News helicopter can be seen, with the slogan "Fox News: Not Racist, But #1 With Racists". Bill O'Reilly, host of the Fox News show The O'Reilly Factor, aired the clip during the show's "Pinheads and Patriots" segment, saying "Continuing to bite the hand that feeds part of it, Fox broadcasting once again allows its cartoon characters to run wild." After the clip aired, he said "Pinheads? I believe so." In response, the producers added a brief scene at the beginning of the opening sequence of the following episode with a helicopter that bears the slogan "Fox News: Unsuitable for Viewers Under 75." According to showrunner Al Jean, the producers of the show were pleased that they had annoyed O'Reilly, and that they had never received a warning from Fox about making jokes about the network. He added, "Both ends of it benefit the ultimate News Corp. agenda,” Jean said. “We’re happy to have a little feud with Bill O’Reilly. That’s a very entertaining thing for us."

Other journalistic media are satirized as well. "Homer Badman" is a satire of shows like Hard Copy. David Mirkin, the show runner at the time, felt very strongly about the "tabloidization of the media" and has said that the episode is as current today as it was at the time and things have since gotten worse. Several gags in the episode are based on what real life shows like Hard Copy would do, such as making people look to be guilty without a trial as well as a complete invasion of privacy by setting up camp outside people's homes. The talk show "Ben" reflects the writers' feeling that anyone could host a talk show because all they need is a microphone and an audience. This leads to Homer using public access TV to try to clear his name. The character Birch Barlow, who hosts a conservative radio talk show in Springfield, is a take-off of American talk show host and political commentator Rush Limbaugh.

Springfield has its own local newspaper, which is called The Springfield Shopper. The newspaper is often isolated from mainstream media, so the characters do not seem to know any of other newspapers. The Springfield Shopper has the characters Dave Shutton and Mary Bailey as reporters. Dave Shutton became less relevant since the episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" and have been reduced to cameos and appearances in crowd scenes. Mary Bailey would since "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" appear briefly in episodes such as "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade" and "The Seven-Beer Snitch". The reporters for the paper play only a minor role on The Simpsons and the presence of The Springfield Shopper is mostly limited to having the headline presented on the show. With a few exceptions, other newspapers are mentioned on the show. In his book Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality, Jonathan Gray discusses a scene from "Homer Defined" that shows Homer reading a USA Today with the cover story: "America's Favorite Pencil – #2 is #1". Lisa sees this title and criticizes the newspaper as a "flimsy hodge-podge of high-brass factoids and Larry King", to which Homer responds that it is "the only paper in America that's not afraid to tell the truth: that everything is just fine." In the book, Gray says this scene is used by the show's producers to criticize "how often the news is wholly toothless, sacrificing journalism for sales, and leaving us not with important public information, but with America's Favorite Pencil."