NYT: On Cable, Fog of Words re. Kerry War Record(no fact-check,reflection)

[DeepModem Mom]

TV WATCH
On Cable, a Fog of Words About Kerry's War Record
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

Published: August 24, 2004


There is the fog of war and then there is the fog of cable.

Over the last few weeks, 24-hour news networks have done little to find out what John Kerry did in Vietnam, but they have provided a different kind of public service: their examination of his war record in Vietnam illustrates once again just how perfunctory and confusing cable news coverage can be. Facts, half-truths and passionately tendentious opinions get tumbled together on screen like laundry in an industrial dryer - without the softeners of fact-checking or reflection.

Somehow, on all-cable news stations - CNN as well as Fox News - a story that rises or falls on basic and mostly verifiable facts blurs into just another developing news sensation alongside the latest Utah kidnapping or the Scott Peterson murder trial. (It is particularly confusing on Fox News, where so many of its blond female anchors look like Amber Frey.)

(Ms. Stanley discusses at length Fox News's coverage as the worst of cable re. the issue.)

***

CNN showed less relish over the Swift boat clash, but it was not much more helpful in separating fact from friction. Wolf Blitzer's interview with the tart-tongued Mr. Dole made a lot of news on Sunday, but CNN allowed him to make misleading assertions without pointing out where he was in error. Mr. Dole suggested that Mr. Kerry was in a rush to obtain his Purple Hearts to meet a regulation that allowed soldiers to leave the war zone after winning three. "I mean, the first one, whether he ought to have a Purple Heart - he got two in one day, I think. And he was out of there in less than four months, because three Purple Hearts and you're out." ( Mr. Kerry did not receive two Purple Hearts for events of the same day. He received them for the events of Dec. 2, 1968; Feb. 20, 1969; and March 13, 1969.)

(After referencing Wolf Blitzer's subsequent phone interview with Dole, Ms. Stanley writes): That kind of air-kiss coverage is typical of cable news, where the premium is on speed and spirited banter rather than painstaking accuracy. But it has grown into a lazy habit: anchors do not referee - they act as if their reportage is fair and accurate as long as they have two opposing spokesmen on any issue....


(PERSONAL NOTE: This last thought is a pet peeve of mine. Two opposing spokespeople mean little -- on some issues, there aren't two opposing sides, there is just the truth, which sometimes belongs to only one side.)


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/politics/campaign/24watch.html

[Moderator]

1. Locking

This is really an opinion piece, and since it has been posted in Editorials, I'll lock and readers can go there to comment on the article.

[Moderator]

2. Link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x69456