Why the CBC Hates FOX News

A great many people in the media today lament FOX News, the ultra-conservative 24-hour news station which airs in the US and on Canadian satellite. Those from the CBC seem to particularly sneer the network for it's strong political bias and editorials disguised as news. The difference between the two is that FOX is the top rated news station in North America, which the CBC is kept on life support by the CRTC and tax dollars. The news is a product like any other. I can make something which I think is the best ever but it means jack squat if I can't sell it. It branches out into a much larger debate over whether politics belongs in the news. Old timers like the late Walter Cronkite prided themselves on being as fair and balanced as possible. Even though Walt was a raging Liberal, he performed an excellent job in balancing both sides of the debate. Of course why watch DVDs when VHS was just fine? Who wants the extra content that the newer medium offers? A lot of people apparently.

The news has changed dramatically in the last ten years with the rise of the internet. It's no longer a matter of sitting down for the six-'o-clock CBC news broadcast or reading the morning paper. News is available everywhere at any time, on demand. It's not that there isn't a market for it. The market is larger than ever. People want more and conventional journalists are failing to deliver. It's not that there aren't enough stories being covered or that the coverage lacks quality. People however don't want to just read the story, they want the debate that goes along with it. They want to post their comments, they want to read others' comments, they want to hear what the reporters themselves think of the issue. In other words, people want the bias. They full well know its there. To tell young journalists that bias is inherently a bad thing that must be avoided at all costs is a bad decision. Heck, even the great Edward R. Murrow didn't follow that ideology. It's an unavoidable part of the business.

The problem with a lot of journalists today is the inherent elitism in the profession. (Apparently, according to my inside sources, some journalists at the CBC don't even watch TV at all because they think it's a mindless diversion for the stupid. The irony is delicious.) Judging by what I've heard in journalism school, most think their viewers and readers are pretty stupid. One vary liberal student commented that he was shocked that people watch FOX News and then go out and vote. They conveniently forget that their left-wing golden boys and girls such as the BBC, the New York Times, John Stewart, Steven Colbert, and Ariana Huffington are all extremely biased in their reports. One notorious example of this hypocrisy is FOX being frequently attacked for its bias during the lead up to the Iraq war. However, a major study (the PIPA report) found that all major American networks had blindly reported false information on the weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's links to Al Qaeda. Only PBS News did not, which incidentally also receives the least amount of viewers. For liberal journalists, who make up the majority of the profession, to smugly claim they are not biased is itself a huge lie, not only to the public but to themselves. It serves no one.

So do I think that the media should abandon its old style fair and balanced approach? Well, as I've already said, no such thing ever existed. The media does have a duty to cover the story from both sides, but I feel that there is nothing wrong with the reporter voicing their opinion on subjects, especially given that it is what the people want. Bias is ok as long as journalists openly acknowledge it and don't try to hide it, or worse, pretend it doesn't affect them. Bias should be separate from the main story, but linked to it. It serves to spark debate. A story is just a story, a story with an opinion tacked onto the end is what gets people talking. All it takes is someone to get the ball rolling. This is why talk radio, FOX, CNN, John Stewart, and the bloggers have all become so successful. Ignore the reasons for their success and you too are doomed to go the way of the dinosaur, or more accurately, be left standing in the unemployment line.