Of Olbermann, Fox, and Commentators

I’ve been rather interested in the reaction to Keith Olbermann’s couple of day vacation. There was quite an outcry when Fox’s parent corporation donated money to the Republicans and at the time I wondered just who imagined that such a corporation would actually be neutral on such issues. Where they give their money is a substantially smaller issue, in my view, than the way they portray the news.

But with Olbermann we have the rather humorous situation of MSNBC trying to pretend that there was some sort of objectivity left in their afternoon and evening lineup on cable. I’m not sure who might have thought there was such a thing, but apparently the company was determined to make sure whoever it was remained deceived.

Of course, Olbermann daily does more for candidates and causes than his three donations would have done. I have no objection to MSNBC enforcing their rules. Let’s just not make the mistake of supposing that objectivity was anywhere on the playing field. Purely objective news is a myth, and always has been. There was no golden age when news reporters were purely neutral.

What we need to do is recognize the biases, and learn to watch, read, and listen critically. That is the only defense against biased reporting. The issue, I think, is not balance. A scales may be balanced even when using false weights. The issue is truth seeking.

Olbermann’s show was an opinion show before, and it’s an opinion show now. There was never any doubt about which way that show (and its network) was leaning. Nobody had any reason to be deceived.