In the last week there have been a few stories that dominated the headlines that struck a chord with me. One was the president and his administration's remarks regarding FOX News. The other was the infamous Balloon Boy story. By now, you may be asking what do those two stories have anything to do with the other and why exactly did they strike me?
Regarding Fox News, I would like to say that I am a liberal, but I am an American first, and I know the difference between news reporting and political punditry. I love good political punditry, even if I don’t agree with it. However, there is a time and place for it, and it should never be confused with actual news journalism. News is not biased. News is not based on opinion. News consists of the facts - nothing more, nothing less.
My problem with Fox News is not as much about the opinions that they strew about but the fact that they report their opinions as news when they are clearly people stating an opinion. The line between reporting the news and discussing opinion is never made clear as Fox news weaves in and out of the two genres.
With that being said, other major networks may not work as hard to define that line either. Rachel Maddow is no more a news anchor than Glenn Beck is. Both are political pundits, not news anchors. My biggest beef with most cable news networks is that they don’t clearly define the difference and too many Americans fail to realize that there even is a difference.
Personally, I prefer my own local news channels where dishing out political opinion is still taboo and reporting the facts is the task at hand with no time for opinions. Or else I watch Congress in session on C-Span, where I can watch without the middle man and decide for myself what’s going on in Washington.
There is a line that has been crossed since the popularity of cable news networks and the president has every right to have strong feelings against Fox News. But picking a fight with them kind goes against everything children are taught in grade school. Showing the bullies that they got you worked up is letting them win. Ignoring them and pretending they aren’t there is what drives them crazy.
I had the opportunity to see the president speak last week and he did jokingly mention the dangers of cable news. He didn’t mention any network specifically, but instead referred to cable news in general. That’s a warning we should all take to heart.
A prime example of this is the fact that while the country is in such a fragile state, all the cable networks can drop everything to cover a boy in a balloon. It turned out that the boy was not actually be in a balloon but his family had orchestrated the prank in hopes of obtaining their own reality TV show.
We allow the media to feed us this stuff, which is why they keep doing it. Reports are showing that Glenn Beck’s ratings are increasing dramatically. But in a world where Jon & Kate Plus 8 can attract 10.6 million viewers in one night, do ratings really mean anything other than that American public will watch anything cable television puts on TV?
I saw something on Twitter that described my feelings perfectly. It stated that it was not so much the fact that a family perpetrated a hoax about a boy in a balloon, but that for an afternoon the entire country was distracted by a shiny object in the sky.
My advice for true news coverage? Read the AP wire and stuck with PBS. And shut off the cable box.
