The "news world" is abuzz with the recent announcement that Sarah Palin will join Faux News as a contributing commentator. While I'm certain this move will be a ratings bonanza, to me it represents another chink in the armor for the overall field of journalism.
My main beef with organizations like Faux News is that they no longer report on the news of the day but create it themselves! Their "stars" and the decided slant of their reporting becomes news itself. (The same can be said of MSNBC which leans far in the other direction.)
When a news organization becomes part of the news that they ostensibly are reporting on, we have a definitive conflict of interest. They necessarily lose any semblance of objectivity and a modicum of objectivity is necessary when disseminating news for public consumption.
My main beef with organizations like Faux News is that they no longer report on the news of the day but create it themselves! Their "stars" and the decided slant of their reporting becomes news itself. (The same can be said of MSNBC which leans far in the other direction.)
When a news organization becomes part of the news that they ostensibly are reporting on, we have a definitive conflict of interest. They necessarily lose any semblance of objectivity and a modicum of objectivity is necessary when disseminating news for public consumption.
FOX news is a very sad thing to behold. I am happy that we don't have such huge impact for our more stupidious represents of journalism here in Sweden - which doesen't mean that our media is all perfect and good. But having browsed some FOX goingt back to public service is a breath of sanity.
ReplyDeleteResearching this, I have interviewed several foxes. Interestingly, none of them ever watch Fox News.
ReplyDeleteThe number one reason being that there has never thus far been a single story in which foxes were involved.
Suecae,
ReplyDeleteHmm. Maybe I should move to Sweden!!
Crow,
I bet that's it!
As a former reporter, I might observe that the business went feral (like a fox) in the early '70s when "in-depth reporting" and investigative and advocacy journalism became the rage. (To say nothing of color on newsprint.) Not that reporting was always objective, but now it sort of demanded that the reporters become stars, commentators beyond reporting that something happened. It became our duty to explain why, even to the poiint of taking a side, and the ego got in the way. Objectivity was no longer a value. You had to be yin or yang, you couldn't just report on the whole taiji!
ReplyDelete