David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun is writing some excellent commentary about cable news, commentary I wholly agree with. Here’s one very recent article (it’s only dated “August 2009,” but may have just appeared today) which focuses on Keith Olberman, and spreads out from there. It’s called “Olberman, O’Reilly: How Cable TV Harms Nation.”
I have been writing repeatedly about the way in which I believe the harsh, reckless, irresponsible and dangerous rhetoric of cable TV talk show hosts like MSBC’s Keith Olbermann and Fox’s Bill O’Reilly was hurting America….
Prime-time cable TV hosts like Olbermann are playing the very same dark and dangerous chords as [Joseph] McCarthy’s lot. Only today, thanks to cable TV and the Web, they have bigger amplifiers and the ability to spread their poisonous messages instantly with virtually no gatekeepers to get in the way–particularly when entities like NBC News, which knows better, looks the other way.
And the poison of attack and hateful speech spreads through the body politic until we can no longer have civil town hall discussions in this country between elected officials and their constituents….You couldn’t get people to act with the anger and belligerence seen at these town halls if those people thought it would bring them shame to behave that way in public.
But the lesson of of cable news is that such ugly behavior won’t bring you shame, it will bring you favor. You’re acting just like Olbermann, O’Reilly, Hannity, Beck and Dobbs. You’re acting just the way cable TV taught you to act in the political arena.
And now we reap the whirlwind of an angry, polarized, confused and frightened populace.
Zurawik has been after Olberman for a while. Last September, he wrote, “MSNBC Paying for Its Olberman Sins.” He starts with the right-wing attempts to paint CNN as liberal:
“The attacks on CNN have largely failed, because Jon Klein, the
cable channel’s president, has insisted that his reporters and
anchors report stories and do interviews by “playing it straight down
the middle,” as he has termed it in recent interviews with me.“MSNBC,
on the other hand, has all but abandoned a journalism of facts and
verification in favor of propaganda and ideological bombast with
Olbermann — and now, Air America’s Rachel Maddow. And the cable
channel has become no better than Fox News on the right with Bill
O’Reiily….It looks like MSNBC has blown its chance to be a credible and trusted
source of news and information by letting Olbermann rule the roost.
But Zurawik doesn’t target only the liberal pundits, like Olberman. He goes strongly after the pundits on each wing. Here’s what he had to say on August 7 about Glenn Beck:
“I am starting to think that things have gotten so far out of control with some of the cable hosts on the so-called all-news cable channels that maybe sponsor pullout is one of the only actions that can make a difference. I’m talking about TV Newser’s report that three advertisers have distanced themselves from Glenn Beck’s show on the Fox News Channel in response to Beck calling President Barack Obama a “racist” who holds a “deep-seated hatred for white people.”
“Beck is only one of several out-of-control hosts who traffick in innuendo, slander, smears and outrageous comments like the ones about Obama….The contagion seems to be spreading to CNN with Lou Dobbs carrying the virus. Let’s hope this version of swine flu doesn’t infect the whole channel.
“So, maybe in these harsh economic times, the loss of advertisers will make a difference. Something has to. The level of prime-time discourse on all-news cable TV is absolutely toxic.”
Zurawik represents well my feelings about the poisonous attitudes cable news shows produce among listeners, and why I increasingly look elsewhere for accurate light on current events.
