The Death of Real News?

[monk222]

Ted Koppel chimes in on the unfortunate evolution of news into another sort of consumer commodity. This is already an old theme, but Koppel brings some force and gravitas to the subject, being a genuine genius and a genuine journalist. His old “Nightline” show was one of the best examples of journalism, and it is funny to recall those old shows, how non-partisan they were. And so he now comments on the death of real news:

The commercial success of both Fox News and MSNBC is a source of nonpartisan sadness for me. While I can appreciate the financial logic of drowning television viewers in a flood of opinions designed to confirm their own biases, the trend is not good for the republic. It is, though, the natural outcome of a growing sense of national entitlement. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's oft-quoted observation that "everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts," seems almost quaint in an environment that flaunts opinions as though they were facts.

And so, among the many benefits we have come to believe the founding fathers intended for us, the latest is news we can choose. Beginning, perhaps, from the reasonable perspective that absolute objectivity is unattainable, Fox News and MSNBC no longer even attempt it. They show us the world not as it is, but as partisans (and loyal viewers) at either end of the political spectrum would like it to be. This is to journalism what Bernie Madoff was to investment: He told his customers what they wanted to hear, and by the time they learned the truth, their money was gone.

Like a lot of people who comment on this phenomenon, Koppel arguably goes too far in drawing a moral equivalence between MSNBC and Fox. Although the MSNBC stars are partisan in the sense that they are effectively advocates for liberal Democrats, choosing issues and analytical frameworks most flattering to them, they at least seem to play fair with the facts that they use, even if they are a bit selective in choosing what facts to present. Fox, on the other hand, is willing to make up facts out of whole cloth, or at least distort them out of all recognition, and Fox also works directly to elect their favorites, effectively being a quasi-campaign organization. Maybe I don’t even need to stick on that ‘quasi’.

But the main point is well-taken. In a digital world rich with virtual realities, it is unsettling to see that even news and our understanding of the real world has become yet another venue of virtual realities. I suppose the real reality is that thing crumbling under our feet.