Forgotten Sleep

ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News?

If you guessed Fox News, DING, DING, DING, you’ve found the secret square.

Now, before any of my more conservative friends decide to come at me with pitchforks and torches, let me say this: I am, in no way, asserting that any news network is perfect. They all have their biases, they all make mistakes in presenting stories, they all have anchors and reporters who are guilty of pushing the envelope in the wrong direction on occasion.

But, none, and I say this categorically — none of the networks indulge their darker instincts more than Fox. And, they do it in the name of providing fair, balanced news — telling people what’s “really” going on. Two cases in point: Brit Hume and Glenn Beck.

Earlier this week, Brit Hume waxed oh so eloquently about Tiger Woods’ marriage fiasco. To be clear, as a woman, as a person, I think Tiger’s actions make him a dirty dog. I feel bad for his wife and two little kids. That man has a problem that needs to be psychologically addressed. But it isn’t this part of the story that Hume decided to tackle. Here’s his quote from Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, regarding Tiger:

He’s said to be a Buddhist; I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.’”

Are you kidding me? This is the point where my sensibilities as a journalist start to sting. There is no point at which someone who labels and identifies themselves as a reporter or newscaster of any kind can or should promote one faith over another. It goes against the fundamental tenets of journalism that require its practitioners to set aside their own beliefs and views to present facts. I realize that Hume was functioning as a commentator on Fox News Sunday, but his previous main roles at the network have been both as managing editor of the bureau and as host of Special Report. This statement moves so far outside the confines of what he should’ve been saying that even Bill Kristol was stunned into a brief silence.

But even Hume’s inappropriate on-air evangelizing pales when compared to Glenn Beck’s recent rants. Granted, I’ve only seen outtakes of his antics, but this man cries on camera. Cries. On. Camera. I love my country, too, but you will not see me on camera with big crocodile tears running down my face, blubbering about it. That, though, is just an annoying event.

As I watched another outtake last night, I saw Beck do something that deeply offended me as a journalist, an American and as a human being. He denigrated India in horrible ways — an entire country. He mocked the Indian healthcare system, intimated that their educational system was vastly inferior, professed that anyone who would go to India to find more affordable healthcare is stupid, and, to top it off, he said that the Ganges River (a river sacred to the Hindus of India) sounded like a disease for which people would need Cipro.

The audacity with which he ranted and raved shocked me. My mouth fell open. I am astonished that someone — anyone — will give this man a microphone. We are certainly all entitled to our opinions, that’s one of the beautiful things about our government, our society and our culture. But we must also be cognizant of what we say, in what forum we say it and in what capacity we are speaking we when open our mouths.

It is irresponsible as a journalist to ever believe that it is appropriate to inject your personal feelings into what is meant to be a newscast. It is insulting to your viewers to editorialize in any way. It is misleading to the audience who, for better or worse, trusts you to give them objective information.

For years, I have operated under the belief that Fox News was merely a ludicrous mouth piece for a certain segment of society. It was clear that news coverage wasn’t fair, balanced or complete. I thought the biggest threat was that people would be ill-informed or misinformed — not to minimize the peril that situation brings, of course. But, after seeing what Hume and Beck have been spouting lately, it is clear that the network is far more dangerous now. As a network, it is condoning the broadcast of ideas, opinions and beliefs that are intolerant, oppressive and antithetical to the way the American society works.

As an American who is a Christian, who is tolerant of all faiths, ethnicities, races, sexual orientations, etc., I am overwhelmingly dismayed that the thinking people of this country are allowing this to go on without screaming out in protest.

Perhaps the absence of outcry points to their lack of market share, but that doesn’t make their effect any less damaging. I think I’ll be sticking to networks and reporters who can broadcast without raising both my blood pressure and theirs.