The Daily Fail

Ever since the months leading up to the presidential elections last year I have been paying close attention to the American media. At first it was to gage what the sentiments for each candidate were at home. I knew for a fact that the world view was the Obama was the best candidate, since the Republican ticket, internationally, was tarnished by the Bush era, yet I was wanting to find out what the “average Joe (the plumber?)” was thinking across in actual America.

I already new generally what to expect from the US media landscape. In the right corner was Fox News, infamous for its “Fair and Balanced” slogan, which after only watching five minutes of it when on holiday knew was baloney. Next on the left was MSNBC on the left, and somewhere floating in between them was CNN. Herein begins the problem. So immediately you know, before you turn on the news channel, what view you will get. However when coming to watch news coverage I did not realise that I was not stumbling upon news, I was stumbling upon hour after hour of opinion. ]

The primetime news schedule in the USA is dominated by personalities, such as on Fox Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck; on MSNBC you have Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews and CNN with Campbell Brown, Lou Dobbs and Larry King.

Each anchor has their own show style and different way of presenting. However the vast majority are not covering news as such. They mention a news story, and then consequently push their opinion on the viewer. There is nothing wrong with opinion, however is there too much of it now on US cable news.

A quick look a the prime time schedule of most news networks shows that they are saturated with these shows, almost masquerading as news. On the right at 8pm, you have ratings winner Bill O’Reilly on Fox News with the “No Spin Zone” on the O’Reilly Factor. (He’s very modest about his ratings, you never ever hear him refer to them, ever….) On the left Keith Olvermann with Countdown on MSNBC. They both present basically opnion spun towards their target audience. So basically, most of the time, you have MSNBC getting into bed the the democrats and Obama, whereas on the other side Fox is panning the hell out of government, the president and over analysing every single error seemingly made. They had eight years where “their side” was in power, and now, they do not like it as much it seems.

However, the problem I find is that aside from these opinion shows, there are actual news shows during the day. These shows are meant to be news, however you often see the anchor get angry, emotive and cast their own opinions on things. Take this clip here from Fox’s Shep Smith. Too involved in the coverage?

It seems that anchors are not more important than the coverage itself, and networks are becoming more and more partisan. Instances now like Glenn Beck on Fox News are becoming big hits in the news channel schedule. At 5pm on a weekday I would want to turn on the TV to see what had been happening in the world, not some “comedian” cast their views on the news. See this here. This is NEWS, not theatre.

It is the same over on MSNBC too, the left are equally as bad. Olberman has segments such as “Worst Person in the World” Most of the time these are anchors on Fox News. Then in return Fox News hurl abuse back at MSNBC. It is like watching two 6 year olds slinging mud at each other. It is ridiculous.

O’Reilly had Jon Stewart on his show a few years back, and O’Reilly said it was worrying that many young people use The Daily Show as their first point of call for news material in America. Are you surprised anymore? There seems to be nowhere in America to get news in a conventional way without it passing through an agenda sodden filter or being displayed as if it were a comedy show. At least The Daily Show portrays itself as a comedy show, unlike the news networks which are becoming all too much the same.