Bernard Shaw laments:
“Unfortunately, Fox News is the ratings leader . . . on the cable side of the business, and what Fox puts on the air is not news.”
What Fox does, he said, is “commentary, personal analysis.”
Calling himself “very straitlaced [and] very old-fashioned,” Shaw said: “When anchors are reporting the news, they should report the news and allow the viewers at home to decide what they think about issues.
Retired anchor Shaw laments effects of Fox on his beloved CNN
It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry. People have been complaining about the editorialization of the news for long before FOX news even existed, and for good reason. Why it’s only FOX that provokes these concerns makes one wonder just how oblivious these mainstream news people are.
Here’s a small example of what has been going on for decades and decades. These are all headlines for the same news:
- Rice lashes out at Chavez’s closure of popular TV station
- Rice Speaks Out on TV Shutdown
- Rice Protests Venezuelan TV Closure
- Rice Condemns Pulling of Venezuelan TV Station
- Rice, Venezuelan foreign minister spar over TV station closure
- Condoleezza Rice Concerned About Press Freedoms in Venezuela
If that isn’t personal commentary and editorializing, I don’t know what is. If I were Chavez, I’d prefer the first one. It makes Condoleeza Rice sound like she lost control, suggesting a raving maniac. If I were Condoleeza Rice, I’d prefer one of the others, perhaps the 3rd or 6th, because it makes her sound like a responsible human-rights activist.
It’s a relatively minor thing, but this sort of things has been going on forever. It’s not new with FOX. CNN didn’t get into it by apeing FOX.
Minor edit to clarify an antecedent, 6-Jun-2007