Turned off by TV news? You're not alone.
We've just finished reading a scathing critique of network news by
Jeffrey M. McCall, professor of communication at Indiana's DePauw
University and author of "Viewer Discretion Advised: Taking Control of
Mass Media Influences."
It was this time last year, the professor notes, that Federal
Communications Commission Commissioner Michael Copps criticized the
television news industry for giving the public "too much baloney
passed off as news."
"Sadly, the evidence since that speech indicates that Copps' critique
remains quite valid," Mr. McCall writes. "From superficial coverage of
elections to hyped-up coverage of celebrity scandals, the broadcast
news industry continues to give the citizenry a news agenda that
degrades the conversation of democracy."
And how have the news networks reacted?
"NBC is countering the decline in journalistic effort with an increase
in razzle-dazzle," he finds. "Evening anchor Brian Williams was a
guest host last fall on 'Saturday Night Live.' NBC executives were
delighted with the stunt, one of them saying, 'It showed a side of his
personality that some viewers may have warmed to.' "
(Perhaps we will warm up to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton now that she
appeared on the same comedy show over the weekend).
"The most recent NBC novelty is the new voice that introduces
Williams' 'Nightly News.' It is none other than Hollywood actor
Michael Douglas, recruited by Williams himself to open the show," Mr.
McCall adds in his Op-Ed column, which first appeared in the South
Bend (Ind.) Tribune.
It's so pitiful, he points out, that on a certain "day last June when
oil prices dropped $2 a barrel, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs
stepped down, the space shuttle launched, and former national security
adviser Sandy Berger surrendered his law license for stealing
government documents, the story that dominated cable news was Paris
Hilton's release from jail."
Still, he says, there's hope:
"Former NBC journalist Maria Shriver recently told NBC she wouldn't
return to the network from her current hiatus. She cited the media
excesses in covering the death of Anna Nicole Smith last year as the
major factor, saying 'It was then that I knew the TV news business had
changed.' "
--
It is simply breathtaking to watch the glee and abandon with which
the liberal media and the Angry Left have been attempting to turn
our military victory in Iraq into a second Vietnam quagmire. Too bad
for them, it's failing.
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