Forget the Media. What's the News?
Friday, 13 November 2009 09:08
I've been a long time fan of Fox News, especially the O'Reilly Factor and Hannity. My opinions tend to run along the conservative side of the court, and I've found that MSNBC, NBC, and some of the other news organizations leave me more angry than informed when the program is over.
So, I gravitiate toward Fox when the television comes on.
During the recent presidential election, though, I began to notice an annoying change in the Fox News story line up. Fox now includes more commentary on other news organizations than they used to. Fox's criticism of other news groups has gotten so bad that last night's Talking Points Memo on O'Reilly was devoted to how many times the other media outlets used the word 'terror" in describing the murders at Fort Hood.
The thrust of the article was this: Hasan's shootings were acts of terror, and we (Fox News) call it terror, so why aren't the other media outlets doing just like us?
This is the opening dialogue on a day when we are still reeling from the insanity of Hasan's actions, our president appears puzzled about what to do in Afghanistan, we have troops being hit by IEDs in Iraq, and the Senate is deciding what to do with the House's health bill which could bankrupt our nation. The execution of John Allen Mohammed could have provided some thoughtful opening comments on 'justice served'. The role the political correctness might have played in not stopping Hasan before the shootings would have been a timely topic.
But... The opening commentary was devoted to a count of how many times the other media organtizations used the word "terror".
Frankly, I don't care how many times that word was used by the media or even by the president.
The shootings were horrific, the acts of a psyche twisted by jihadist teachings, incomprehensible to reasonable and sane people. There are dozens of words that can be used to describe Hasan's actions. Brutal, barbarous, cold-blooded murder, beastly, trerrible, slaughter, and on, and on.
What we don't need right now is to have our sense of priorities skewed to where we think that the use (or non-use) of the word "terror" is some sort of newsworthy event, or that the number of times the word is used is some kind of litmus test for accurate reporting.
Personally, I'd prefer that the O'Reilly Factor focus on issues that matter. Reasonable American adults are certainly able to spot liberal bias when we see it, and we don't need Fox News telling us which media outlets are acceptable in their estimation and which are not. We don't need that word count asessment to be given top billing on the O'Reilly Factor.
If an aspect of the shootings is what O'Reilly wants for his opening commentary, then he spend his air time telling us who the heroes of Ft. Hood are. Talk about the chaplains who are counseling the grief stricken, talk about those who survived the shooting, tell us about the Eagle Scout who died in the attack, tell us anything that matters. Don't spend that time sniping at the other media groups, or being smug about Fox's superior clarity of vision on the news. It's not enough to make me turn from Fox to CNN, but it is enough to make me turn off the set and wait until something newsworthy is on.
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