Basic Information
- About Doug
- Bedside Books—The Stuff I Don’t Have to Read
- Comments Policy
- Contact Doug
- Doug’s Amazon Shop
- Doug’s Publications
- Doug’s Speaking Calendar
- First Lines
- Geivett Glossary
- Honorable Mention
- Introduce Yourself!
- My Twitter
- New Book Arrival—Being Good: Christian Virtues for Everyday Life
- Novel Quotations
- Reading Jags
- Reviews
- Some Favorite Lines of Poetry
- Well I’ll Be Blogrolled!
- What Say You?
Subscribe to My Feed
Calendar of Doug’s Posts:
S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
29 | 30 | 31 |
Archives
Blog Stats
- 482,943 hits
Doug’s Twitter
- Who’s done the best work on Jean-Paul Sartre’s religious philosophy? 7 months ago
- @MittRomney What will you do about it, Senator? 9 months ago
- @JDiamond1 People do say dumb things. This includes people who say of those who listen to different scientists that they “ignore science.” 1 year ago
- @TylerLeeConway What is an ungodly amount of money? What makes it so? 1 year ago
- Pithy Pell and RBG’s Call douggeivett.wordpress.com/2020/09/22/pit… 1 year ago
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Merry Christmas from Thinking Matters – Thinking Matters on More Christmas Reading
- Merry Christmas from Thinking Matters – Thinking Matters on ‘Tis the Season for Christmas Reading
- Was Donald Trump Chosen to Reveal Your Binary Core Value Problem? – The Drama of America: How Will This Turn Out? on Super Tuesday and the “Cult of Trump”
- Was Donald Trump Chosen to Help Bring America’s Christians to an All Is Lost Moment? – The Drama of America on Donald Trump and the Nationalist Christian Movement
- Doug Geivett on Remembering Edward John Carnell—Some Reflections of a Great Apologist
Top Posts
Blogroll
Books
Cartography
Christian Apologetics
Classic Texts
Culture
Drawing
Film
Foreign Language
Literature
Maps
Motorcycling
- 2010 Triumph Thunerbird Review
- Art Biker
- Beach’s Motorcycle Adventures
- Best Biking Roads
- Bikelinks
- Biking Iceland
- Biking Viking Motorcycle Tours
- Horizons Unlimited
- Motor Cyclist
- Motorcycle Cruiser
- MotoSites
- MotoWhere?
- Review of Triumph Bonneville America
- Southern California Triumph
- The Motorcycle Safety Foundation
- Triumph Bonneville America Test
- WhyBike.com
Parenthood
Philosophy
- 18th Century Philosophy
- Always Have a Reason
- Certain Doubts
- Colin McGinn
- Episteme Links
- erraticimpact philosophy research
- Faith Interface
- Faith, Film and Philosophy
- Fragments of Consciousness
- Hesperus
- In Socrates’ Wake
- MandM
- Maverick Philosophers
- Morality and the Good Life (Mike Austin)
- Philosophers’ Carnival
- Philosophical Films
- Philosophical Weblogs
- Philosophy Games
- Squashed Philosophers
- Teach Philosophy 101
- Teaching Philosophy
- The Prosblogion
- Thoughts Arguments and Rants
- True Paradigm
- Wisdom & Folly
Reference
Religion
Social Media
Theology
Travel
- Beach’s Motorcycle Adventures
- Best Biking Roads
- Biking Iceland
- Biking Viking Motorcycle Tours
- Embassy World
- Horizons Unlimited
- lonely planet
- Mappy Road Guide
- MotoWhere?
- National Geographic MapMachine
- Travelers’ Health
- Universal Currency Converter
- weatherbase
- World Weather
- XE Universal Currency Converted
Webbed Feet
Topics
Categories
Academia Barack Obama Biography Blogging Books Christian Apologetics Christianity Critical Thinking Cultural Issues Current Events Entertainment Existence of God Film If You Can't Hack It Literature Media Other Parenthood Philosophy of Religion Philosophy Posts Politics Quotations Reading Reading Jags Religion Teaching Technology The Academic Life What Say You? Writing
Does “Somewhere in Between” Mean “Ideologically Neutral”?
June 1, 2009 2 Comments
At Politico.com, Michael Calderon has a piece assessing the significance of the drop in viewership at CNN—“CNN fades in prime-time picture.” The brief article is mostly just straight reporting.
These are the “facts”—except for the part about the trick ponies, which I slipped in. And there’s a reason why I use the term “trick pony” to refer to cable TV “news” anchors. To begin, the persona of an anchor is crucial to nabbing and keeping viewers. Everyone acknowledges that. But we should wonder why.
The answer may seem obvious. Take CNN, for example. They claim to be “the most trusted news . . .” Leave aside the question whether the tag captures the truth. Why would they be trusted more than the other networks? Remember, the answer has to have something to do with persona. So why would Anderson Cooper, the leading news anchor for CNN, be, in effect, the most trusted news reporter, period?
The answer we’re supposed to come up with is that CNN is ideologically neutral, and Anderson Cooper is the embodiment of that neutrality. And, we must remember, ideological neutrality is good . . . if it’s news you want.
Calderon begins to reveal this outlook early on, when he contrasts the CNN strategy with the “more opinionated programming” at FOX and MSNBC. Notice that—FOX and MSNBC are “more opinionated” in their programming. Maybe that’s true. But what does it mean, and why believe it?
Well, a network can be more or less opinionated. FOX and MSNBC are “more.” So CNN is “less.” Thus, it follows that CNN may also be airing “opinionated programming,” but just not as much as FOX and MSNBC. But then, what is this more or less of opinionated programming? And are viewers supposed to be able to tell when it’s happening and when it isn’t?
Surely things aren’t that simple.
I think we can agree that Keith Olberman is an opinionated guy, and that he unleashes his opinions pretty regularly on his show at MSNBC. Sean Hannity comes to mind when thinking of FOX. So does Bill O’Reilly, who has created a whole new meaning for the phrase “I’ll let you have the last word.” (If you’re a guest with whom he disagrees, he will, indeed, “let you have it.”)
We agree in thinking that prominent anchors at MSNBC and FOX are “opinionated” because it’s obvious. But here’s the significant point: what’s obvious is what their opinion is. That is, they make it obvious that they are presenting an “opinion” because they tell us when they are giving us their opinion.
Why is this so significant? Because opinions don’t always come flying at us with banners telling us that we’re in the trajectory of an opinion. Often they sneak up on us, clothed with disclaimers that their message is completely “objective.”
Calderon is mistaken in suggesting that CNN is ideologically neutral on the grounds presented by him in his piece. Being neither overtly conservative nor overtly liberal, in the style of FOX and MSNBC, respectively, does not mean that CNN is “in the middle” or “neutral.” It has been convincingly argued that they are not neutral but considerably left of center.
Viewers need skills in detecting the ideological commitments of media outlets, the more so when their commitments are more subtly packaged and publicly advertised as “neutral.”
Share this with others:
Like this:
Filed under Critical Thinking, Cultural Issues, Media Tagged with CNN, FOX, ideology, Media, Media Bias, Michael Calderon, MSNBC, Social Commentary, television, television ratings