[tweetmeme alias="http://bit.ly/bU3QMT"]Lou Dobbs has finally called it quits. He announced during yesterday’s broadcast that he is leaving CNN effective immediately in order to “pursue other opportunities.” Clearly, the recent campaigns to have him removed from CNN have borne fruit. It is interesting to observe how a real news organization—that is, an organization whose first priority is news—responds to viewer complaints. This is a stark contrast to the approach of Fox News, which has steadfastly backed its cash cow opinion personality Glenn Beck, who has been the subject of a grassroots effort to remove him from Fox for months.
Dobbs led CNN’s effort to compete with Fox News on opinion journalism after Fox rose to the number one ranking among cable news channels on the success of shows like The O’Reilly Factor and The Glenn Beck Show. The focus of Dobbs’ so-called “advocacy journalism” began looking less like focus and more like tunnel vision because of his obsessive rhetoric on illegal immigration and the Obama White House’s economic initiatives.
Many people were disappointed to see CNN abandon its roots as a traditional news outlet by allowing its journalistic integrity to be compromised in order to compete with Fox. Opinion journalism and compromised journalistic integrity has gone hand in hand since “opinion journalism” took the place of commentary—a word that left little doubt as to whether the report you were hearing was news or opinion.
This move seems to indicate the direction CNN intends to take according to its priorities. We can only hope that Fox will stand alone in proclaiming its right to blur news and commentary along with its assertion that the public will differentiate (or more likely, be unable to differentiate) between the two.
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Lou Dobbs, great commentary
The Party's Over
[tweetmeme alias="http://bit.ly/bU3QMT"]Lou Dobbs has finally called it quits. He announced during yesterday’s broadcast that he is leaving CNN effective immediately in order to “pursue other opportunities.” Clearly, the recent campaigns to have him removed from CNN have borne fruit. It is interesting to observe how a real news organization—that is, an organization whose first priority is news—responds to viewer complaints. This is a stark contrast to the approach of Fox News, which has steadfastly backed its cash cow opinion personality Glenn Beck, who has been the subject of a grassroots effort to remove him from Fox for months.
Dobbs led CNN’s effort to compete with Fox News on opinion journalism after Fox rose to the number one ranking among cable news channels on the success of shows like The O’Reilly Factor and The Glenn Beck Show. The focus of Dobbs’ so-called “advocacy journalism” began looking less like focus and more like tunnel vision because of his obsessive rhetoric on illegal immigration and the Obama White House’s economic initiatives.
Many people were disappointed to see CNN abandon its roots as a traditional news outlet by allowing its journalistic integrity to be compromised in order to compete with Fox. Opinion journalism and compromised journalistic integrity has gone hand in hand since “opinion journalism” took the place of commentary—a word that left little doubt as to whether the report you were hearing was news or opinion.
This move seems to indicate the direction CNN intends to take according to its priorities. We can only hope that Fox will stand alone in proclaiming its right to blur news and commentary along with its assertion that the public will differentiate (or more likely, be unable to differentiate) between the two.
Comments
See previous article:
Lou Dobbs, great commentary
from → Commentary, Media, Politics