OK, I don’t usually delve into politics, especially not on the Internet, but I can’t avoid it this time. (One day I will run an Internet only campaign to be president, but not today.)
The title is really the true question today. Am I alone in thinking that the news media should report the news and not become the news? I understand that this is one of the foremost principles of journalism. However, this is not the case today. I know that no matter what happens, anyone with a brain will taint information with their perspective, but journalists are supposed to be the most trained in avioding this. Yet, twice in as many days I see that CNN has taken a forefront in the news, not in the news reporting.
The first item I heard about on the way home from baseball practice. I was trying to find the Braves game (yeah, you know me), but they must have played in the daytime because a talk radio show was on. The host was talking about a CNN reporter, Susan Roesgen. Now, I’m well aware that the host of news radio shows tend to be overly biased to a viewpoint, so I didn’t spend too much time thinking about what was being said. I found some humor in the tirades (both the host, and the audio of Susan Roesgen’s reports), but other than that, I simply filed the information away as another radio host embellishing for the ratings.
Then today I found another news article about the events and it even had the CNN video. You can read the entire article here. This was my favorite (if I can use that word) paragraph…
CNN took a different tack. They sent reporters to at least some of the Tea Parties. Roesgen was at the Chicago Tea Party and apparently wasn’t one bit happy about it. She was belligerent and confrontational with protesters. She asked questions without giving time for answers and spouted out left wing talking points aggressively. She seemed angry to see Obama referred to as a fascist. She declared it wasn’t a family friendly gathering and verbally hammered the man who had the sign. However, Newsbusters has a video of the very same Susan Roesgen covering an anti-Bush rally in New Orleans and seemingly having no problem at all with President Bush being portrayed with horns and a Hitler mustache. Different standards? Lack of objectivity in reporting? Say it ain’t so!
That was interesting enough, but then I played the video. WOW! Here is the journalist (I say that with apologies to real journalists everywhere) inserting herself into the news. She is rude, belligerent, and overtly biased (and I didn’t even look for the ant-Bush video). I was shocked and amazed that after she forces herself into a debate with the man with his child, she then refuses to let him finish until shouted into submission by the crowd. Finally, unable to answer his comment, she tries to move on, but her security steps in and shuts the man up. I hope eveyone who sees that video understands it for what it was. It was a blatant example of a reporter shoving herself into the story rather than simply reporting the story.
I could almost find it in my heart to forgive CNN for this, even is she isn’t punished (although as the article says, she is probably being praised). However, when I first looked at the news today, I saw that CNN was in a “friendly” competition with Ashton Kutcher over Twitter account numbers. Now I don’t Twitter. I don’t even Facebook or My Space. This simple blog is really enough for me. All that being said, I won’t pretend to understand all of what the numbers were about, but that doesn’t really matter. What is important to note here is that it seems CNN is breaking the “rules” of journalism, and not in a good way. Here the company is inserting itself into the news just as much as Susan Roesgen did. Folks, this is not reporting, and it is not news.
Can we please go back to having the news be something the reporter simple talks about? I remember growing up they would always end the newscast with three to five minutes of someone giving his editorial. Remember that? That was the way it used to be. The news was just the facts and the editorial was separate. I like it better that way. When I want news, I want the facts of the situation or event. Honestly, when I want to know what to think about that situation or event, I don’t really want a reporter telling me (I’d rather check the Bible).
CC
ETA: There is hope. Just checked Yahoo to get the link to the Ashton Kutcher story and it was gone from the front page. From a little checking, it seems that there was much negative Buzz (Yahoo’s way of rating a story thumbs up or thumbs down) about the lack of “news-worthiness” of the story. Along with some interesting comments about why it would be considered special to beat CNN in popularity. 
