What is the difference between news and opinion? News consists of objective facts, but opinions are subjective and are based off of those facts. This is a simple concept going to the wayside as time goes on.
Recently, the Obama administration has come out discrediting Fox News Channel as a valid news organization. Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel recently said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” “[Fox News] is not a news organization as much as it has a perspective.”
Senior adviser David Axelrod said on ABC’s “This Week,” “It’s really not news. It’s pushing a point of view. And the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we’re not going to treat them that way. We’re going to appear on their shows. We’re going to participate but understanding that they represent a point of view.”
Earlier this week, Jake Trapper, ABC’s White House news correspondent, asked press secretary Robert Gibbs about such comments coming from the administration and asked how Fox News was different from ABC, MSNBC and Univision.
Gibbs responded, “You and I should watch sometime around 9 o’clock tonight. Or 5 o’clock this afternoon.”
Gibbs was referring to Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck (who come on at 9 and 5, respectively, Eastern time) as examples of how Fox News’s news programming was highly opinionated.
Here is the problem: These programs are not intended to tell the news to its watchers. These programs are for the hosts to voice their opinions and concerns and unite people with like opinions.
Beck regularly admits on his program it is not his job to be a journalist. He interprets the news. The thought of claiming Beck to be a journalist is similar to calling me a journalist. I am not; if you need proof you can look at my column title as well as the title in big letters at the beginning of this section.
There is a bigger problem here more than the president and all his men bringing down a cable station. This problem is more a reflection on society in general. We have lost the meaning of true debate. We have lost what it means to take criticism with a grain of salt.
We surround ourselves with people who believe like we do socially, politically, economically, theologically, as well as many other factions of thought. When we are challenged, we are quick to label those who confront us as crazy, unpatriotic, hypocritical and incompetent. The debate of policy has turned into a heated bickering match. I know, because this is my tendency. I am not afraid to admit it.
Do not hear me wrong, I do believe certain ideologies are destructive to human life and destructive to my Constitutional rights, and I do believe there are certain people who are incompetent. I am no fan of communist or socialist thought. I feel these ideas are destructive to the freedoms which in turn allow this ideas to flourish. Not being of fan of increased government spending, I will call such actions destructive.
Criticism has its place, time and intensity. There is a way and time to go about answering the allegations of your opposition. Discrediting them because they challenge you is not the answer.
Not only do we jump to name-calling with our ideological enemies, but we also overpraise those who do agree with us in some way. This too has its parallel to the White House’s “Fox hunt.” In both interviews, Axelrod and Emanuel praised the works of ABC and CNN, respectively. The White House is quick to praise the works of channels like MSNBC and CNN, who have television shows devoted to the opinion shows with a more liberal spin, Keith Olbermann’s as one example.
Most media outlets are not questioning the ways government institutions, such as Congress or the White House, do business or if the policies will have any negative impact later. These inquiries most of the media will not ask are honest questions, but political commentators are being punished for asking such questions, and those who are not asking these questions are being rewarded with praise.
Let us be reasonable with one another. Let us debate the controversies between us with dignity and respect. We need to learn from the White House, we do not have to have smear campaigns against our ideological opponents.
Ryan Green is a junior majoring in electrical engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].