Faux Cable News legitimized
Brit Hume honor triggers protest Board member quits over award
By Peter Johnson
Is Fox News Channel ''fair and balanced,'' as its motto claims?
Or is that slogan a clever marketing line designed to hide Fox News
political tilt to the right?
And with its success -- by far, it's the No. 1-rated cable news channel
-- have journalists failed to challenge Fox News on its boast?
These questions have been raised before. But now, a well-known
journalist may reignite the discussion: Geneva Overholser, former
ombudsman of The Washington Post, has resigned from the board of the
National Press Foundation because it plans to honor Fox News anchor Brit
Hume at its annual dinner in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19.
Past recipients of the group's Sol Taishoff award include TV newscasters
David Brinkley, Dan Rather, John Chancellor, Jane Pauley, Barbara
Walters and Nina Totenberg.
Hume, the ABC White House correspondent who joined Fox in 1996 and
anchors a nightly newscast, doesn't deserve the award because he and Fox
practice ''ideologically connected journalism,'' Overholser says.
''Fox wants to do news from a certain viewpoint, but it wants to claim
that it is 'fair and balanced,' '' she says. ''That is inaccurate and
unfair to other media who engage in a quest, perhaps an imperfect quest,
for objectivity.''
She says groups such as the foundation, before lauding Fox or its lead
news anchor, should debate whether the way Fox reports news is good for
journalism.
Someday, Overholser says, ''I think we will look back on these years and
think, 'Why didn't we have a discussion so that the public could benefit
from a change in journalism that Fox is very successfully bringing
about?' ''
The article continues at
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040202/5888598s.htm
--
Gregory Gadow
techbear@serv.net
http://www.serv.net/~techbear
"If you make yourself a sheep, the wolves will eat you."
-- Benjamin Franklin
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