Cable news needs to rediscover ethics
The decline in quality of the American cable news networks is nothing new.
Fox News and MSNBC have been steadily carving out their niche as a place for partisan blowhards to preach to their choirs while CNN has become the most trusted name in “info-tainment.”
CNN once had the most revered brand name in broadcast journalism and still features some of the best political analysis on television and their election-night coverage is second to none.
Where CNN is erring these days is their new emphasis on entertaining news, rather than just news.
Before his firing last week for anti-Semitic remarks, Rick Sanchez was diluting the network’s legacy with each broadcast of his show “Rick’s List.”
The same network that revolutionized the 24-hour news cycle and was able to broadcast live images of Baghdad being bombed in 1990, now featured a program where the anchor would read Facebook comments and tweets on air, rather than report on anything important.
If sensationalist broadcasts and over-the-top anchors were CNN’s only problem, that could be tolerated. Cable news now has to fill 24-hour news cycles and compete with the internet and hundreds of competing channels.
But their recent hiring practices are quickly chiseling away any journalistic integrity the network clings to.
Eliot Spitzer has been appearing as a Wall Street analyst on the network for months under the moniker “the former sheriff of Wall Street” and on Monday debuted a new show called “Parker Spitzer,” that will be a roundtable discussion show with conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, where the central theme will undoubtedly be partisan hacks trying to yell louder than each other.
While Spitzer did earn a reputation for investigating Wall Street as New York’s attorney general, the network would conveniently forget to mention that Spitzer was forced to resign as governor of New York in 2008 due to him being a client for high-priced prostitutes; both as attorney general and during his 15 months as governor.
Another troubling hire is that the man taking over Larry King’s time slot in January, Piers Morgan. Morgan made his reputation in England as a tabloid journalist and has been a host and contestant on reality TV in the U.S.
“Larry King Live” was once served as the network’s crown jewel and the time slot will now be filled by a personality who has no journalistic credibility and makes Ryan Seacrest look like Tom Brokaw.
The network which dubs itself as the “Most Trusted Name in News” has definitely lost my trust and more importantly, my respect.
