Catherine Crier: Newsrooms Revolt!

[babylonsister]

Catherine Crier

Newsrooms Revolt!

Posted March 22, 2008 | 10:48 AM (EST)


Profound sadness was my dominant emotion as I watched one of the cable news shows this morning. Two attractive young 'political analysts', a handsome African American and a winsome blonde, (guess their politics), 'illuminated' the presidential race. Vacuous and incendiary were the only modifiers that came to my mind. Whatever your politics, whichever news channel you favor, the diet is poisonous.

When I joined CNN in 1989, I was ecstatic. To be part of an organization that could spend 24 hours a day covering important issues around the world was a dream come true. While the vision didn't always comport with reality, it matched up much of the time. As time went by and competition emerged, we all know what happened. Ratings began to drive agendas and heat over light became the norm. In recent years, the lip gloss quotient (it works for both genders) has become more important than IQ. The definition of fair and balanced has nothing to do with truth and is satisfied if voices from the far left and right are encouraged to spew their dogma in angry debate. The anchors are there to simply fuel the fire with no duty to steer guests to substantive conversation, much less to insist on facts over fatuous rhetoric.

Unfortunately, many people still get their dose of news from these locales. Watching favored channels, they absorb material that usually comports with their established world-view. Opposing positions are presented as fodder for their gladiators to shoot down or lampoon by the force of personality alone, or, regardless of the content, as demonstrating equilibrium in the discussion.

We are in one of the most critical presidential races in our lifetimes. The issues are monumental; a collapsing economy, the never-ending war in Iraq, global climate change. Yet we watch as the networks loop Rev. Wright sound bites (with not a single one offering up the easily accessed sermons in long form so viewers can form a reasoned opinion about the man and his agenda), or maybe they debate the phrase 'a typical white person' ad nauseam. I have no problem challenging Barack Obama on his association with the minister, but as with most stories, a few phrases from Wright's career do nothing to inform people about the man or his mission. It is the duty of the media to offer the big picture on this (and so many other stories) so viewers can make a reasoned decision, but unless I've missed it, no news organization has tried. The purveyors of news must bravely offer information that may challenge the audience despite the backlash from time to time.

The press knows how influential it is in shaping attitudes and opinions. However, the mind-numbing drivel most of us subject ourselves to serves only to polarize and solidify preconceived positions; so much so, that when actual facts slip into discussion, they are dismissed as mere partisan ammunition. There are exceptions to this rule, but that equation should be reversed.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catherine-crier/newsrooms-revolt_b_92884.html

[Doctor_J]

1. Should Ariana be allowing Republicans to opine at the post?

It was one place where we could go without reading what the GOP has to say.

[babylonsister]

2. I suspect Ariana can allow anyone she wants to post. And judging

from some books Crier has written, I don't know how much of a rethug she is.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Where did you get the notion that Crier is a "GOP"?

I admit to not knowing her as well as, say Olbermann or Maddow, or even Matthews, but she has always come across to me as eminently fair and quite balanced. Not in the mold of Faux news, but in the mold of that phrase before it was usurped by Faux.

If anything, I would have said she's a Dem.

[madrchsod]

5. i remember when she started

she was very good but sadly the news business has no room for her anymore

[annabanana]

7. I miss seeing Catherine Crier on the air. I remember how much

better she was than the people surrounding her at the time. (I don't remember the name of the show I used to see her on.)

[Doctor_J]

10. I am pretty sure that she was a GOP-appointed judge,

unless I am thinking of one of the other talking heads. Although she's way better looking than most of the Repugs on TV.

[elleng]

12. What exactly

is your complaint?

[roseBudd]

14. Have you seen Crier's book Contempt: How the Right Is Wronging American Justice?

http://www.amazon.com/Contempt-Right-Wronging-American-Justice/dp/1590710649

America’s federal courts have an enormous impact on the daily lives of Americans. They also make up the last relatively independent branch of government. But, there is a committed and well-organized confederation of ultra-conservative politicians, reactionary interest groups, and fundamentalist religious sects working to change that once and for all. And they are succeeding.

They have a plan. They have money. And they have millions of “believers.”

A majority of Americans strongly oppose the dogmatic agenda of this extreme right-wing onslaught, but that majority has remained silent.

Someday, you and your family may wake up in a very different country, a country re-made in their intolerant image, a nation governed by their inflexible laws.

Catherine Crier was called a "far left loon" by Bill O'Reilly.

[madrchsod]

4. does it matter if a news reader is a republican or democrat?

no it does`t. news readers are supposed to read the news and keep their comments to themselves.

since cable news has become entertainment not reporting, then we get what we see today. i remember when started crier and what she became. i think she finally realized just how corrupt her profession has become.it`s not about the truth,it`s about about selling soap.

to sell soap to the rubes the faces have to have a tight body and a pretty face. they soothe the rubes into believing anything they have to say because someone that perfect would never lie to them.

sadly, cathy is just another old woman who was used , abused, and tossed out like a dirty rag..

[Stinky The Clown]

6. How does that square with Candy Crowly, Helen Thomas, Andrea Mitchell, and many other women who are

over some people's hills?

I'm actually8 not disagreeing with you. "News" sucks and may well be our single biggest problem in the country today. I've long held that an honest media would have **prevented** much of the shit of the last seven plus years.

[madrchsod]

9. we are intelligent enough to know age

does`t matter if one can think critically. i`m old enough to remember morrow and the others who actually reported the news.

[Doctor_J]

8. Does it matter?

when the news channels pre-screen their news readers so that all of them are republicans, you get "news" such as that on ConNN, MSRNC, and Fox - one-sided reportage where no story that might damage the ultra-right wingers that run the country ever makes it to the air. 24 hours of Jeremiah wright vs. 0 minutes of John Hagee. A year of non-stop Lewinsky vs. nothing on Cheney getting drunk at his mistress's house and shooting his friend. So of course it matters.

[madrchsod]

11. you are right

sometimes i just wish it was`t.....

[elleng]

13. As well-written description of

and complaint about today's media, and people everywhere must recognize the correctness of her views.

The media is not doing its job of informing the public, and we're stuck until they change.