In all honesty, I believe that the “Big 3” network news and many cable network news shows are flat-out phony. Their “reporting” is downright deceptive. Their “reporters” tend to tell us only what they wish to tell us and forget the rest. On top of that, what they want us to see and hear is typically slanted. I always believed that Dan Rather was one of the worst. But there are many others and the deception continues in full force, even with good old Dan out of the picture.
Things weren’t always like they are now, though.
If you are old enough to remember the Fifties, John Cameron Swayze gave us straight news with no frills and no lies. By the way, Swayze’s (real) news show was fifteen-minutes in length: About one minute (if that much) for commercials and at least fourteen minutes for news. Nowadays, I believe that a thirty-minute news show has only about eighteen minutes of news. (Things change.)
Sometime during the late-Sixties and early-Seventies, ABC used Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner as a news team. It’s the last time I remember getting reliable information from the major media. Both Smith and Reasoner had their opinions but they kept them out of the news. The last few minutes of each show were dedicated to one of them and they started by saying, “This is my opinion …” (That’s called integrity.)
Quite a few years back, circa 1970, late one Sunday evening, I watched Smith and Reasoner. Then I flipped to CBS and saw the tail-end of a ballgame and I then watched Dan Rather. I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing. The CBS news was completely different from ABC’s version and quite slanted.
You know, there is something that really bothers me about Vietnam War news reporting, which sometimes pops up even now. Kennedy started the war, and his name is rarely, if ever, mentioned in that context. Johnson messed things up by the way he handled the war, and you hear a little about that but very little. And Nixon, who could well have ended the war on a more positive note if Congress hadn’t undercut him, is blamed for the whole shooting match. Go figure.
Replacing news with opinion is one of the great sins of our time, as is omitting news due to bias. A free and honest press is a bulwark against government corruption and abuse.
What has happened to our “news” is a real shame.
FOX News and OAN seem to be the only reliable sources to get my information. I will admit that their opinions are very Conservative, but their news is on target. News is news and opinion is opinion, but opinion is not news. If you don’t agree with me, that’s the way it goes.
