I keep hearing about Fox and CNN on TWiT shows and how they very much aligned with one political party or the other.
In Germany, the anchor, Peter Kloeppel, and the sports reporter, Ulrike von der Groben, of RTL news both retired together on Friday. They made it into the Guinness Book of Records for having been on air together for 32 years.
The station gave them a surprise send off after their news show. They had well wishers giving them messages, under them several ex-Chancellors, the current Chancellor, the Health Minister, even the President of the EU, people from all parties, all praising them for their work over the years, for being fair with each side of the spectrum.
The only ones notably absent were the extremists from the left and right (die Linke and the AfD).
The BBC used to be this way, when I was growing up, they’d have a go at all sides, which usually had the opposition calling them out as being on the pocket of the government and the government calling them communists or right wingers…
I assure you that the BBC is still getting stick from both ends of the political spectrum for its news reporting! Its coverage of the recent General Election was very good, especially the sit-down interviews done with each of the leaders of the major political parties by one of the presenters on Radio 4’s Today programme, Nick Robinson.
And, of course, the BBC World Service continues to produce high quality news across the globe. It’s great to be able to access its content now without having to listen on very low fidelity short-wave radio!
The interesting thing about the CNN and FOX lovers and haters is that CNN and FOX have mostly the same guests on to discuss the various topics of the day!! My seriously left wing governor (Newsom) goes on both…
I grew up in the UK and have lived the second half of my life (so far) in the US. In general, I find US news reporting, especially on political matters, to be passive and I find interviewers are deferential and unchallenging, when compared to their UK counterparts. I cannot imagine that any BBC or ITV correspondent would allow extremist US politicians to make blatantly false statements without repeated and aggressive challenges.
I am told that American media believes it is the job of the reader/viewer to form their own conclusions. Maybe so, but when democracy is at stake…
To be fair, some of those programmers literally categorize themselves as entertainment rather than news. And I believe the ones that don’t openly do so, likely would label themselves as such given a legal push. Another dark pattern in action. It’s my parents’ generation that keeps these hollow networks ticking, they can’t get enough of it. (not to say my generation getting their info on complicated world events from 5 second video clips is any better)
Richard Campbell turned me on to ground.news on a WW episode a while back. Really helps to visualize biases and influences affecting different sources.
There are plenty of trustworthy sources out there but cable TV is not where to find them. I like to tell people to follow the journalist, not the institution.
We have some of those channels in the UK too. When they’ve been challenged by the broadcasting regulator on stuff, their defence is they are entertainment or opinion TV. They do have a newsroom and an hourly broadcast that does seem to follow the rules, and it’s noticeable that the news team is often reporting the opposite of what the opinion people are.
