NYT SLAMS Cable TV Coverage of SBVFT

[liberalpragmatist]

On Cable, a Fog of Words About Kerry's War Record
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

Published: August 24, 2004

There is the fog of war and then there is the fog of cable.

Over the last few weeks, 24-hour news networks have done little to find out what John Kerry did in Vietnam, but they have provided a different kind of public service: their examination of his war record in Vietnam illustrates once again just how perfunctory and confusing cable news coverage can be. Facts, half-truths and passionately tendentious opinions get tumbled together on screen like laundry in an industrial dryer - without the softeners of fact-checking or reflection.

Somehow, on all-cable news stations - CNN as well as Fox News - a story that rises or falls on basic and mostly verifiable facts blurs into just another developing news sensation alongside the latest Utah kidnapping or the Scott Peterson murder trial. (It is particularly confusing on Fox News, where so many of its blond female anchors look like Amber Frey.)

Fox News, which delivers its news with "Fight Club" ferocity, has relished the controversy the most, seizing hungrily on charges that Mr. Kerry lied to gain his medals. Those accusations, which have not been substantiated, were made in the book "Unfit for Command," co-written by a former Swift boat commander and longtime Kerry critic, John O'Neill. Fox News has pushed the story early, often, and sometimes even late.

<snip>

CNN showed less relish over the Swift boat clash, but it was not much more helpful in separating fact from friction. Wolf Blitzer's interview with the tart-tongued Mr. Dole made a lot of news on Sunday, but CNN allowed him to make misleading assertions without pointing out where he was in error. Mr. Dole suggested that Mr. Kerry was in a rush to obtain his Purple Hearts to meet a regulation that allowed soldiers to leave the war zone after winning three. "I mean, the first one, whether he ought to have a Purple Heart - he got two in one day, I think. And he was out of there in less than four months, because three Purple Hearts and you're out." ( Mr. Kerry did not receive two Purple Hearts for events of the same day. He received them for the events of Dec. 2, 1968; Feb. 20, 1969; and March 13, 1969.)

<snip>

That kind of air-kiss coverage is typical of cable news, where the premium is on speed and spirited banter rather than painstaking accuracy. But it has grown into a lazy habit: anchors do not referee - they act as if their reportage is fair and accurate as long as they have two opposing spokesmen on any issue.

ON EDIT* Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/politics/campaign/24watch.html

[mzmolly]

1. Linky?

:shrug:

Thanks for the story, I am glad someone is talking about the quality of cable news! Dean called it "entertainment" not "news" and I agree!

[frylock]

2. got a link?

[RamboLiberal]

3. Here's one

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/politics/campaign/24watch.html

[rocktivity]

4. Found a link

But you have to be registered
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/politics/campaign/24watch.html

:headbang:
rocknation

[liberalpragmatist]

5. kick

n/t

[Leilani]

6. Read the whole article

& they were right about FOX, but I thought they were too soft on CNN.

Should have slammed the entire CNN political unit for bias, Judy, Candy, etc.

[Hamlette]

7. Jon Stewart agrees!

"anchors do not referee - they act as if their reportage is fair and accurate as long as they have two opposing spokesmen on any issue."

The Daily Show was great today. Catch it tomorrow if you missed it.

The Daily Show. When the news breaks, we fix it. (Those guys crack me up.)

[gasperc]

12. Daily show is great, but tired of depending on it

It's great that Kerry will be on tonite but it is sad that of all the overpaid news anchors that we expect and depend on, we have to watch a fake news show to get the truth!!!

Fuck!!!!

[dennis4868]

14. The Daily Show....

is not fake news even though that is what they tell you. Its the least fake news program out there these days....

[DeepModem Mom]

8. kick

[AmerDem]

9. Dupe!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=658710&mesg_id=658710

[DrBB]

10. "Air-kiss coverage"

I think that goes nicely with "attack poodle." A very useful thing to have a quick, derogatory handle for.

"Air-kiss coverage": So-called journalists acting as if their reportage is fair and accurate as long as they have two opposing spokesmen on any issue.

Such as whether the earth is flat. We covered both sides! We are both fair (blowdried blonde) and balanced (not falling off our chairs).

on edit:
And then of course there's the more all-embracing term, "Ass-kiss coverage."

[rocktivity]

11. In the interest of fairness and balance, the article should have disclosed

1) That the new York Times has a fairly contentious relationship with Fox News (as in O'Reilly vs. Krugman)

2) That it doesn't seem to have occured to ANYONE, including NYT, to give equal time to Bush's military record.

:headbang:
rocknation

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Cable News has become the Tabloids

of the broadcast media.

They really should not be allowed to call themselves reporters or journalists. What they do has little to do with either profession.