On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 9:42 AM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 6:52 AM, Joe Coughlin <[email protected]> wrote: >> Neutral's worse than having a point of view, I think. It gives rise to false >> equivalency, the idea that there are two equally valid points to every >> argument. > > The problem I have with the way CNN claims neutrality is twofold. > First, it assumes there are ONLY two points of view. Second, (as Joe > pointed out), it assumes the two views have equal validity. > > (snip) > > CNN fails to recognize nuance, and the problem lies in the lack of > beat reporters and salaried experts in the newsroom. There should be a > team of people in Atlanta devoted entirely to covering terrorism and > its effects on a national and global society. There should be another > team devoted to what is going in Congress, and yet another team > dedicated to probing the decisions made by the Supreme Court. Instead, > whenever news breaks in a given area, CNN dashes around to find some > partisan pundit from the Whatever Center for Whogivesacrap to appear > via satellite and be interviewed by an unprepared newsreader. It is > the difference between covering the news and frantically chasing after > the news. > > They'll spend millions of dollars to project a hiphop artist in the > studio in 3D, but they won't find room in the budget to hire anybody > with a freakin' brain. Correction: There are days when I watch AC360 > when I see his frustration.
Indeed, this is where I battle with my wife. She believes that journalism allows for absolutely no analysis, where I believe that's one of the areas when good journalism shines brightest. But there's only so many times you can call out James Carville or Ed Rollins before I think, "Okay, so exactly how are you giving me real analysis when it's the same 30 retread voices over and over again?" I am usually subjected to either "The Situation Room" or "John King USA" as part of my bus ride, and while my headphones do a decent enough job of covering up the audio, I can usually see the same basic people or pointless technology (touch-screen anyone?) being brought out. And even without hearing the words, I can tell when it goes pointless. As an aside: Friday morning, CNN had Lewis Black on American Morning. He ripped the excessive use of tickers and other screen garbage. What's funny is that he does this *every single time he appears on CNN.* It's as if no one has bother to make a note in his contact file to kill the tickers when he shows up. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
