The Lou Dobbs Tonight show is the second most watched broadcast on CNN after Larry King Live. 800,000 Americans tune in each night to watch this self-proclaimed journalist at work. The show pays particularly close attention to the issues of border security, illegal immigration, the war in Iraq, and free trade. The problem is, as is common with most "news" broadcasts on 24-hour news networks, Dobbs' coverage of these and other subjects is laced with his own personal opinions.
The problem with injecting opinion into news is simple: eventually the facts will be distorted to reflect and support a particular viewpoint. Dobbs is not the only so-called journalist on television guilty of this action, but is among the best at injecting his opinion into reports on issues of the day. Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann, and Glenn Beck are other characters who have also mastered this craft.
Fortunately not every commentator on 24-hour news networks claims to be a journalist, but the effects of their broadcasts are the same. It has become increasingly more difficult to find factual news reports. Instead, viewers find themselves watching one person's opinion of the news. Of course, this opinion has to be strong and compelling or it will never draw the ratings (read revenue) necessary to make the show worthy of broadcast. I am sure you can now see the conflict for the 24-hour news networks: accurate and straight forward reporting versus usually accurate opinion laden news that makes money.
Their choice has been pretty obvious. Faced with increasing competition and a need to distinguish themselves, 24-hour news networks have sacrificed a little integrity for a lot of cash. How else can you explain how individuals like Dobbs are allowed to place greater emphasis on their viewpoint of a story than the story itself? This turn for the worse would not be so infuriating if the networks did not pretend to be (to borrow a phrase) fair and balanced.
On top of this pretension we now have commentators like Dobbs insisting they are journalists. For the record, journalists simply report the news while commentators both report and provide commentary. Its hard to argue that Dobbs and his ilk stop at just reporting. For example, I am sure you know Dobbs' opinion of President Bush's free trade policy or Glenn Beck's opinions of Iran.
Its fair to say that there is no such thing as 24-hour news. There are a few hours of infomercials, a documentary or two, a comedic take on the current events, a few hours of commentary, and maybe a couple hours of actual straight news. Now there is even less news. Perhaps some creative lawyer should file a lawsuit for false advertising. After all, CNN doesn't stand for Cable News Network; no, CNN=Politics. Didn't you know?
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