CNN Fights Back With 'Objectivity' Arguments. Ted Koppel - Wildly Opinionated Fox MSNBC - Serious Objectivity. The man best known as the longtime anchor of ABC’s Nightline, Ted Koppel, says “wildly opinionated” cable news has left him “saddened,” and he believes viewers deserve–and the times require–”a little more serious objectivity.”
Speaking to Howard Kurtz on CNN, Koppel discussed an article he wrote last fall, calling out opinion hosts like Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and then-MSNBC host Keith Olbermann for creating a culture of partisanship that dimishes all cable news: “I think there has to be a willingness on the part of the public to accept that journalism is trying to do an honest job of giving them an objective accounting of what’s going on in the world, and an objective appraisal of what’s really important in the world. In the face of what Fox is doing and the face of what MSNBC is doing, there’s no reason for the public to assume anything other than what we’re doing is putting forth our own opinions.” Why Most Journalists Dislike Fox News: It’s Not the Reason You Think.
According to Dee Rambeau, July is Media Orchard’s “Pick on Fox News” month — so since July is almost over, I thought I’d better get in one last lick.
This may be hard for people who have never been journalists to understand, but I do not dislike Fox News because my politics are left of Roger Ailes’. I dislike Fox News because it undermines the efforts of all journalists who work hard to be objective in their coverage of the day’s events. Ailes smirks that Fox News is “Fair and Balanced” when everyone at that network knows that it has a political agenda that comes down from on high. That smirk not only makes Fox News a liar — it also mocks the integrity of all journalists who have committed their lives and careers to the ideals of objective journalism.
Let me explain something to those of you who have never been reporters; for most journalists, integrity is everything. Journalists, in general, don’t enter the profession to make money. One last point: This phenomenon works both ways. FOX News, MSNBC and Objectivity - Objectivity in Cable News. This is a confusing time for journalism students.
Professors stress the importance of objectivity in reporting, but some of the most prominent journalists in the country - the hosts of cable TV talk shows - are anything but objective. So what's going on? What's going on is that two of the three main cable news channels - FOX News and MSNBC - have discovered that opinion-based talk shows get high ratings. High ratings mean more money for these networks, so there's little incentive for either FOX or MSNBC to change their formats any time soon. FOX, on the one hand, is the conservative alternative for people who believe the so-called mainstream media have a liberal bent. MSNBC, meanwhile, has in recent years positioned itself as the liberal alternative to FOX. There's a reason O'Reilly, Olbermann and their ilk are popular - they're entertaining.
What is Objective Reporting?