TheLoop21.com

By: Devona Walker (Add to your loop)
Tue, 03/02/2010 - 09:29

Too many opinions in the news media eliminates real objective truth

With the rise of opinion-based journalism, comes a growing disconnect in terms of race relations in America. Are those two issues related? Of course they are.

Each news outlet, whether its FOX News or MSNBC has resorted to preaching to its own choir as opposed to objectively presenting the news. Meanwhile, ethnic media sites have also penetrated the marketplace, offering yet another alternative to the mainstream news. While this has resulted in a more diverse media landscape, especially for minority communities who have for years felt underrepresented and largely ignored by the mainstream media, it comes at a cost. 

That cost: Collectively we are not coming to the table with an established set of facts. Based upon the outlets we frequent, we are getting divergent information, and there is a growing uncertainty on whether there is an objective truth anymore. The other cost: We are quickly devolving into various tribes as opposed to one electorate. 

You could argue those tribes have always existed. And you would be right. But my point is that the current state of American journalism is furthering that gap as oppose to shrinking it.

"There's no doubt that polarization matters,” said David Wilson, a political psychologist. “The problem with the news media is it all depends on your perspective.”

Let’s take FOX News for instance. During the health care reform debate, there were salaried news anchors telling their viewers that their government was going to establish death panels that would decide whether or not to pull the plug on grandma. Then MSNBC, perpetuated the narrative that there couldn't be health care reform without a public option, effectively introducing an entitlement as opposed to addressing the more salient issues of pre-existing conditions, barring insurance companies from booting off sick people and the ballooning health care costs.

The massive popularity of FOX News among conservative Americans illustrates the business model that many news outlets are following and how the media appears to be abandoning its basic tenets of reporting the news as opposed to capitalizing on inherent divisions within the American electorate.

“It’s an ingenious idea because you have these issues that some feel are threatening their own idea of America. It’s a period of great change...You have a recession, you have a dramatic population shift, you have two wars, you have terrorism, you have all these things that are threatening the perception of someone's life so to speak," Lewis said, adding then that an outlet like FOX News clearly plays into the natural fear that change implies. 

“Then you have this news outlet telling you that this Black political radical is promoting a government socialist take over. But the only reason it's believable is because he's Black. If he were a white southerner, he could be a moderate like Clinton.”

What is often misunderstood about the media's protrayal of race is the subtle manner in which race is used when disseminated information.