Sean Hannity knows journalism.
Journalism is dead. Sean Hannity told me so.
Next week, ABC News will cover a town hall meeting from the White House where Barack Obama plans to discuss health care. It will be a policy meeting where Obama will field questions on his proposed health care policies. Presumably, both supporters and skeptics will have a chance to speak.
Sean Hannity, among other outspoken pundits on Fox News, think this is nothing more than an infomercial for health care policies they don’t agree with disseminated by a complicit media outlet under the guise of news to a public not saavy enough to know when someone is feeding them a line. So basically, they’re accusing ABC News of being copycats.
It’s not the opinions expressed on Fox News that offends me so much, I believe there’s a place in the media for all voices, even those as disgusting as some of the garbage pettled by the likes of Beck, O’Reilly and Hannity. Government, business and social leaders need a strong, dissenting voice, and these days we’re sure as heck not getting it from MSNBC.
That said, the twisted nature of Fox News’ reports, pushing obviously biased reports off as news, twisting comments and spinning news and then turning around and calling themselves “Fair and Balanced” or telling people they’re in a “No Spin Zone” flies in the face of every principle we’re sworn to uphold as journalists. It’s fine to have an opinion, it’s fine to express that opinion, but don’t insult your viewers by misleading them.
Fox News was the originator of this style of so-called journalism and to their credit they’re very good at it. This unabashed fanboy attitude towards the Republican Party that was so evident during the Bush years and most recently during the Tea Bagging protests during tax season has served them well, but let’s be clear, they are hugely responsible for the death of journalism they’re not decrying.
They can cry about ABC or MSNBC or the New York Times being biased all they want, but they got the ball rolling. Journalism is vastly different than it was 20 years ago and that is in large part to Fox News. Now is the fact that it’s a different game now necessarily bad? That remains to be seen. But Fox News’ cries about journalism being dead, all the while playing a fiddle like some modern day version of Nero with better hair and a bleached smile, as they watch the fire they created consume the noble profession die are hypocritical at best, delusional at worst.
The fact that the journalism industry (particularly broadcast), regardless of where each outlet falls on the political spectrum, is trending towards the biased, gotcha journalism that Fox News helped develop, makes me sad for my colleagues who strive to do it right each day, and scared for my country, which will suffer the consequences.
Now, watch this video to see what I mean.
Fox’s hypocritical attack on ABC News
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