Sunday, July 01, 2007

Too Much Left, Too Much Right-Coverage of a Terrorist Attack

Jim Taricani

Watching the breaking news coverage of the Glasgow, Scotland terrorist attack on Saturday was like watching a ping pong match between the extreme right and extreme left wings of the news media.
The well groomed talking head anchor on Fox News, along with his conservative analysts were so hysterical about the foiled car-bombings in London the day before and Saturday’s flaming Jeep Cherokee at the Glasgow airport, the group made this viewer feel as though New York City was about to be bombed. And the talking heads on this right wing network just couldn’t restrain themselves from using the London and Glasgow incidents to promote their personal views on illegal aliens. Yes, that’s right, in the middle of Fox’s breathless coverage of the Glasgow attacks, the anchorman blurted out,“ doesn’t this attack just remind us all of the importance to protect our borders?“ Wow! At this point, no one knew if the attackers were illegal immigrants, or home-grown terrorists who may just be legal citizens of England or Scotland. But I guess if you work for the Fox “ Fair and Balanced “ network, you need to make good on every opportunity to spout out the Repubican party philosophy or risk being labled a liberal.
On the other side of this politically influenced ping pong news table was MSNBC. Its bobble head anchorwoman, who looks like every other bobble head anchorwoman on television, you know, twenty-something, pretty, fashionable hairdo, etc, was so low key in her delivery and voice overs of the flaming Jeep at the Glasgow Airport you’d think she was describing a vacant house fire on a 6 o’clock local evening newscast.
One of MSNBC’s military analysts, a retired Colonel Jacobs, who is decidedly liberal, immediately wrote off the Glasgow attack as “ most likely a local terrorist group, “ with no connection to Al Qaeda. This startling conclusion was made as he was sitting in a studio some 5,000 miles away from the event with no information other than what he was receiving via the Associated Press or the live reports from the BBC field reporters. Jacobs also noted that American had little to worry about in the way of an attack in this country. That may be true, but how would he know? He was sitting on a television news set, reporting live, and I never saw him pick up a phone to call any of his supposed contacts at the Pentagon to get some real information.
Watching Fox and MSNBC report on this terrorist attack was a good example of what’s wrong with the network cable news. Its either too right, or too left. What ever happened to the middle when it comes to reporting? Where is the balanced network? Where are the anchors who act as conveyors of information instead of injecting their own politically influenced opinions into the stories on which they are reporting?
I remember growing up watching the NBC Nightly News anchored by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. On black and white television. I never knew what their politics were. Couldn’t tell by listening to them night after night as they chronicled the events of the day. I’m sure they weren’t perfect, but they certainly came a lot closer to the idea of an “ objective “ approach to reporting the news than anything on the cable, or for that matter, network news of today.
I’ve got an idea. Fox News should openly identify itself with conservatism, and MSNBC, CNN and the rest, fess up to their liberal leanings. Why bother pretending to be “ fair and balanced “ when you’re not.