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Cable News As Entertainment

Cable news is entertainment which has been misconstrued by many to be legitimate news. Much like the Daily Show hides behind the façade of being a “comedy show on a comedy network,” the cable news shows hide behind the façade of being “analytical” or “commentary.” More Americans are watching cable news shows and less are watching the network news. What this adds up to is that more and more people are seeking to be informed by journalists who are not “Fair and Balanced” but are in fact opinionated and actively lobbying for one of the political parties.
In March of 2010 the New York Times ran a story stating that CNN was suffering a lack of ratings due its policy of not going overboard with commentary. The cable news network that sticks closest to traditional, non-partisan news is the one that’s losing the ratings race. This sad commentary extends itself to the network news programs as well. The network may have a bias or an agenda but the anchor isn’t directly stating as such during the news broadcast. The anchors read the news from the teleprompter and don’t inject their opinions.
The cable news shows, especially Fox and MSNBC should stop referring to themselves as news networks. News may be the well from which they draw upon for segments but ultimately those segments, no matter what they are labeled, will not be hard news. Ultimately every segment will be some form of entertainment meant to garner viewers and more importantly, sell ad space, not just report the facts of a story. They should stop pretending to be in the business of reporting anything and just admit, “It’s a work, it’s all fake, and we’re in the business of pushing political philosophies and occasionally getting someone elected.”
While it is entertaining, I suppose, to see both sides accuse the other of shoddy reporting and bias where exactly does that leave the viewer? News entertainment makes us all dumber. We all end up being more uninformed and too caught up in political rivalries rather than holding our elected representatives accountable for their actions, immoral or otherwise. The point of a free press is to have an informed citizenry ready to vote in a representative democracy for the purposes of running our government. However, because we are not informed enough and have been manipulated by news entertainment organizations, we’ll elect just about anyone based on nothing more than emotions and team loyalty.
There was a story from 2004 by the Associated Press stating Cable News Viewers More Partisan. I found this to be extremely important. As viewers will not seek out honest reporting on major issues which affect our federal policies.
The nation’s political divide is increasingly being reflected in where Americans get their news: Republicans like Fox News Channel and Democrats prefer CNN. ABC, CBS and NBC evening news viewers are slightly more likely to be Democrats than Republicans, according to the survey. (AP)
“During important breaking news stories, ratings for cable news channels always go up. The problem is how to keep them up even when there are not big stories being reported. One way is to present personalities that audiences would want to watch every day, regardless of what is happening. This model, designed after the opinionated shows on talk radio, was employed with great success by the Fox News Channel, which was launched in 1996 and before long was outperforming both CNN and MSNBC in the ratings. Two conservative personalities, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, emerged as stars of Fox in the late 1990s. MSNBC tried to counter Fox’s prime-time strategy with a liberal personality, Phil Donahue,2002, with considerably less success” (britannica.com: Television in the United States; Cable news as entertainment).
With the last two administrations it seems things have just gotten over the top. With channels that represent a left wing point of view (ie:MSNBC)praising almost everything Obama does and harsh criticism of Bush when he was in office. The same thing can be said for the right wing (ie:Fox)when it comes to the administrations. MSNBC president Phil Griffin proclaimed the network, “the place to go for progressives”, Fox news on the other hand denies that they are a conservative network.
We as viewers and concerned citizens need to take a stand. Stop watching these over the top shows. While researching ,I ran across many blogs which stated the viewers of these programs are idiots, I have to disagree. The idiots are the ones that watch these shows and don’t verify through other sources what was being “reported”. This is where things get crazy as well. Even trying to verify through alternative sources, things are even more over the top. So I guess my best advice would be to take what you hear as a half-truth and decide for yourself.
Local news is very important. It focuses on issues that we face on a daily basis close to home. It doesn’t have all the extras that major “news” corporations have but that’s just fine by me. Personally , I’d rather hear about what’s happening around me. Our local governments are shown without bias. We get to hear about our local teams, crime in our neighborhoods and what events our cities and towns have going on.

Works Cited
Associated Press,”Study:Cable News Viewers More Partisan”,NBCNews.com, 10 June 2004.Web. 03 March 2013
Concha, Joe “Unintended Consequences: Cable News Taunting Good For Ego, Not Good For Business”.mediaite.com.08 March 2013.Web.08 March 2013.
Hardball With Chris Matthews.MSNBC.01 March 2013.Television
Kelly, Tod “The Fox News-MSNBC Taste Test: Conclusions”.Politics and Foreign Affairs, The Media. The League of Ordinary Gentlemen.com 10 June 2012.Web.20 Feb 2013.
The O’Reilly Factor.Fox News Channel.29 Feb 2013.Television
Piers Morgan Tonight.CNN.01 March 2013.Television
Schafer , Jack “The Cable News Audience Has Peaked”.Jack Shafer.Reuters.com.24 May 2012.Web.15 Feb 2013
Scott, Jeffry “Who’s No. 1 In Cable News? Depends Who You Ask”.accessatlanta.com. Access Atlanta.28 July 2009.Web.25 Feb 2013.

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