Fox News: Shortcomings From Its Medium and Shortcomings From Itself

While Fox is not always the most reliable or in-depth news outlet concerning the election, not all of it is the individual reporters’ or producers’ fault. Part of it is due to an inability to vigorously pursue stories, but part of it is due to the vigorous competition to get stories out quickly, and part of it is due to televisions’ limitations as a news medium.

-The segment about the “Race Debate”, which lasts four minutes, only includes one expert, talking about a single comment Limbaugh made. It only covers a small part of the issue, and does not make enough of an effort to speak to a variety of people about their perspectives the same way this story from the Washington Post does, and it would take me less time to read that article.

-The “Gutter Journalism” piece had largely superficial analysis of the article, dismissing the claims about Cindy McCain out of hand without bringing up any evidence to refute them, primarily focusing on a Facebook message the reporter sent to her minor daughter. The show included three experts, but as they were introduced in the last two minutes and fifty seconds of the segment, they each had, on average, less than a minute to speak. The media’s treatment of Cindy McCain deserves scrutiny, but it also deserves more substantial analysis that goes beyond its most superficial and surface-level aspects.

-“What Did He Know,” the second part of Sean Hannity’s “Obama and Friends: History of Radicalism”, apart from the explicit bias in the title, and painting Obama as associated with radicals, spends much of the first two minutes replaying commercials and footage tying Obama to Ayers, essentially giving them free showing on the news. The entire six-minute segment- longer than the two previous shows that had potential journalistic value- does little except serve as a lengthy attack ad on Obama that makes him sound as though he is covering up his association with Ayers, and is a disturbing example of Fox’s priorities with regards to newsworthiness.

-While this is not election-related, the news item about a horse getting its head stuck in a tree illustrates an essential flaw in television news. While I would consider this story not worth my time if I encountered it in the paper or on an online news site, on television, I have to sit through it, or turn away from the news for a minute, and potentially miss the story coming up next. The story is also a significant waste of time for the show, and takes up far more of the news hole than a similar item would if it appeared in the paper.

Television news’ immediacy is important for many stories, especially in terrorist attacks like those of September 11, 2001, when a catastrophic event happens that people need to hear about immediately; or in natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, when important information concerning evacuation and shelter can be broadcast over the airwaves. While these are situations in which the news should come in as soon as possible, they are also situations that need extensive coverage, and in an age when Internet journalists can deliver news extremely quickly, TV news must find some niche other than immediacy in order to prove it still has worth for the public.