Slashdot Mirror
Your Opinion Counts At CNN — But Should It?
theodp writes "Some people love how CNN employs Twitter to engage its audience. Not Steve Dahl. 'I am not interested in the take of @stinky on the Fort Hood shootings or any other current events,' complains Dahl of the access the media gives to Internet know-it-alls. 'I am watching CNN because I expect them to gather the news, not act as a clearinghouse for any bonehead with a computer, a cable modem and a half-baked opinion.'"
They may not have started the Tea Bagger movement and they may not directly organize the Tea Bagger marches, but... Having your "correspondents" take part in the "protests," having your producers fire up the "protesters" for the cameras, and constantly vomiting drivel about taking back the country from the Socialists is exactly yellow journalism. Worse even since they are using it to shape public opinion, to effect a national agenda, and their "correspondents" and "journalists" are unapologetic about being entertainment under the banner of a news organization.
IANYL, IANAL, TINLA, IANAMD, IANAP,
Even the recent tea party marches don't qualify, as Fox wasn't the organization that started them, they just helped get the word out about what other people were doing (eg, reporting the news).
Uh, when it's the newscasters sponsoring them (aka, Glen Beck's 9/12 rally), then yea it's a bit more than "getting the word out about what other people were doing." You get your "opinion" guys to make the news so that your "news" guys can just re-iterate what your opinion guys said, but masked as news.
Any reputable news organization would have either not had people on their payroll repeatedly creating events for them to cover, or they would have mainly covered other organization's response (or used it is a starting point) to the activity in order to try and show neutrality in the news room.