For those people living under a rock (or taking a much needed break from the constant debt ceiling discussions on news and opinion channels for a while), the British tabloid "News of the World" and the company that owns it, Newscorp Inc. (owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News), have been sharply criticized for allegedly hacking into the phones of celebrities and even 9/11 victims. It's true. Major news sites have confirmed that staff members at "News of the World" actually attempted to pay off a NYC police officer in order to obtain the cell phone records and text conversations of those people who were killed in the September 11th attacks. Furthermore, and potentially more catastrophic than that, the "News of the World" staff hacked the phone of Milly Dowler, a British teenager who had been kidnapped and was ultimately murdered. In fact, when the girl's voicemail inbox became full with messages, News of the World (hereafter referred to as NOTW) staff actually erased messages from the phone in order to dig up more. This in turn gave the parents of Dowler false hope that their daughter was actually alive, despite the fact that she had already been killed.
The acts of hacking perpetrated by staff and leaders at NOTW are horrendous and the people behind the hacks should be prosecuted for what they did. This is by all intents and purposes a huge story. NOTW was originally founded in 1843, it has been around for more than 170 years and had become somewhat of a staple in British culture. So when the shock news hit Britain and a number of top staff at the tabloid were arrested and questioned, it became a major story that news channels in the United States quickly picked up and reported on nonstop. This is where the story of media hypocrisy begins.
DISCLAIMER: I do not hate everything on Fox News and my criticism of the network in this specific instance should not mean that I am immediately painted as a rabid liberal with an axe to grind. In this blog, I attempt to objectively point out hypocrisy, regardless of the source or party affiliation.
Fox News, the channel that is owned by Rupert Murdoch (who company owns News of the World), has attempted to downplay the scandal. You can watch the video below, in which host Steve Doocey and his guest scolded the mainstream media for reporting on what they saw as such an unimportant issue:
In the interview, Doocey exclaimed,
"We've got some serious problems in this country ... and what do they do?" he said. "They talk about this."Oh Steve, if only there was videotaped evidence of you ignoring real political stories to report on a politically charged issue. Oh wait, there is! Need we remind Mr. Doocey of the Anthony Weiner scandal? According to Mediaite.com, a website that tracks media coverage,
On June 14, Weiner was covered extensively on all three major cable news channels. CNN covered the Weiner fallout on American Morning, CNN Newsroom, The Situation Room, and Anderson Cooper 360. Fox News featured the story on Fox & Friends, America’s Newsroom, America Live with Megyn Kelly, Studio B, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Special Report with Bret Baier, and Fox Report with Shepherd Smith. But it was MSNBC that had the most Weiner coverage Tuesday, with every show covering the story to some degree except Morning Joe, Dylan Ratigan, Rachel Maddow, and Ed Schultz.Additionally, let me share a video with you of Mr. Doocey's Fox News program, Fox and Friends, ignoring important issues and focusing solely on the Weiner scandal when the news broke:
Brian Kilmeade, the commentator on the right, even says,
"We have so much to talk about, you have a budget to pass, you have what's going on in Libya...you have the tragic story of the 13 year old girl who was beaten in Syria, and who could believe that Congressman Weiner's pictures or not pictures could be the number one story on Capitol Hill!"It's as if Fox and Friends recognized the great variety of substantive political issues that they had to choose from and yet still decided that they should spend hours upon hours needlessly tacking the most recent developments of Anthony Weiner.
Now, I would not be fair if I only blamed Fox News. MSNBC has been just as bad. On the Rachel Maddow show, Maddow went through a long list of all the different issues that were plaguing the world at that time. But then, instead of discussing them in detail, she ran a 10 minute segment about...you guessed it, the Weiner scandal:
Analysis: A Flawed Cable News System
Now, I give credit to Maddow for at least presenting these much more important issues (like the atrocities in Syria and Yemen), but the fact remains: the cable news world is out to draw headlines.
We witnessed this with the recent Casey Anthony trial. The day that the verdict was read, I sat at my desk at work watching CNN the entire 9-hour day. Of those nine hours, at least eight were completely dedicated to Casey Anthony. Even worse, the network had no new information. Instead, they were simply recycling the same four or five points over and over again, stalling until a verdict was decided upon and read.
Why do you think that PBS, a no-frills network with some of the best news and analysis on television, draws such abysmal ratings? Because there's no fun in it, no potential to see two self-interested, moronic commentators screaming at each other over a random political issue or over whether or not Casey Anthony should be released from prison on Wednesday or on Thursday. There's no flashy color schemes, loud and outspoken hosts, or crazy partisan hacks as guests. This is the problem with the modern day cable news system.
Our television coverage is failing us. As Americans who understand the importance of open discussion on extremely sensitive and overwhelmingly important issues like the debt ceiling debate, we need to demand that our cable news programs provide us with an informed, well-conceived, and non-partisan account of the most recent happenings. Guests should have substantive discussion, disagreement should be welcome (having two sides to every issue allows a free flow of ideas and encourages viewers to make up their minds independently), but shouting should be strongly discouraged.
The current politics in Washington, with an impenetrable partisan rift between conservatives and progressives that is only worsening as debate on a slew of important legislation continues, directly mirrors the way in which our cable news programs operate. The House floor used to be a place for lively debate, compromise, hard work, and negotiation. Similarly, television news programs used to be a place for well-respected, publicly non-partisan nightly news anchors to present the day's news in an objective and unbiased manner. Today, the House floor is a place for prepared, partisan statements that only serve to emphasize the divide between the two parties (compromise is no longer achievable). Likewise, the news media has become a place frequented by partisan hacks (as both hosts and guests), a place where uninformed opinion has all but permanently replaced unbiased news, commentators spout off party talking points on a relatively consistent basis, and the true battle in any debate between talking heads is over who can yell louder than the other.
Until the news media can find a way to pull back and present the news the way it should be, in an unbiased manner with substantive (and calm) discussion between opposing viewpoints, the ideologically-driven politics of Washington will remain the same.
It's about time that we start demanding change.
