As my morning routine dictates, I watched Good Morning, America this morning. While it's nice to get the news updates of the day, for me it is more important to have idle chatter going on in the background than to actually pick up on any of the news. This particular morning I happened to be actually paying attention to a segment in which they were discussing the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court by President Obama. It's a topical subject, and one that I am actually interested in as I just don't know enough yet about her to understand if I support her or not.
This being a well-respected newscast I was under the assumption that the reporters would provide some real insight into the subject or bring to light some information that may be useful to the audience. I forgot, however, that I was watching an American "journalist" broadcast, which means no actual news can be reported, only partisan rhetoric.
The Good Morning, America team invited a Fox News anchor person on to discuss her opinions on Elena Kagan's nomination. Fox news as a whole, being possibly the most partisan "news" network we have in the States, does not know how to provide true journalistic insight into ANY topic, and this particular anchorwoman clearly was a devotee to the Fox News slant.
Her argument against Kagan? That having military recruiters separated from other organizations on Harvard's campus was equivalent to installing a "Separate But Equal" mentality into Harvard, and that doing so was just so, so wrong. After recovering from the daze of being struck with a 10-ton block of Irony, I had to hold myself back from screaming at the screen (my damn sexy fiancé still being asleep and all). The reason military recruiters were restricted on Harvard's campus? Because of the military's Don’t Ask, Don't Tell policy. That policy conflicts with the Universities non-discrimination and inclusion policies, which are designed specifically to combat "Separate But Equal" situations. So the right wing thinks it can slander a SCOTUS candidate by crying discrimination when it was the right wing that enshrined discrimination into the military? Right... good luck with that...
That whole debacle aside, it got me thinking about the state of journalism in the US. Specifically that we don't have it any more. Journalists are suppose to be impartial and are only suppose to report on the facts so that the partisan masses can make up their own minds. Instead, "journalists" engage partisan hacks at every turn to report their Opinions on a subject, but never really reveal any new facts. We are left to fact find for ourselves.
Look at any of the major news networks. CNBC brings out the Liberal viewpoint almost without contradiction, Fox does the same for the conservative view point, then CNN provides "both sides" of the story, but that just devolves into partisan talking points being barked on air. Have we forgotten that the entire point of journalism is to shed light on news stories, and that the onus of deciding how to feel about said stories is entirely on the audience? Apparently we have.
To me it is sad that I hear and read better Journalistic efforts in the gaming world than I do in the world of "hard news." I can go to any number of gaming news sites to get impartial news about the day's gaming happenings, all from bloggers mind you (who are not Journalists, according to the biased talking heads on Fox, CNN, CNBC, etc.), but I can't find a single source of non-biased Hard News any more.
There is still plenty of value in Opinionated Reporting. I rather enjoy watching Rachel Maddow, and there are those who somehow find Bill O'Reilley bearable. I also enjoy reading some opinionated blogs. But I know I'm only getting one side of a story when I read and hear these things, which makes it very hard for me to form an actual opinion on a topic. I may agree with Keith Olbermann more often than not, but when I know that he is only reporting on things that reflect positively on his opinion, I have a hard time giving him a blank check of credibility.
I want News again. I want Journalism. I want to be able to have enough actual, solid information on any given subject to be able to form real opinions and to have factual, honest debates with those who form opposing opinions. I'm tired of getting party-written talking points fed to me by "journalists." And I am tired of hunting for that information on my own. I have a full-time job already. The reason these "journalists" are employed is to spend their days finding information to report so that people like me who have non-journo jobs can get that information. That's how the job market is suppose to work. Instead, we have a broken system of EntertaiNews that rewards partisan barking over actual information gathering.
Am I likely to give up watching Good Morning, America or Rachel Maddow Show or any of the other programs I normally watch now? Being a creature of habbit, probably not. But if given the opportunity to watch a Real News show for once arises and it happens to be in one of those times slots, I may just abandon my current News programs for something a bit more on par with what I'm looking for. Sadly, I don't see that happening any time soon.
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