USD College Republicans

A response to Bill

I thought I'd make this an entry rather than a comment on the previous post.

Bill Muller stated in a comment: "I agree Keith Olbermann is the liberal equal to Bill O'Reilly (I like his show, but do not necessarily think it is fair) but I feel that Chris Matthews plays both sides of the spectrum and think it is unfair to label him as bias. He is my favorite of the TV "pundits" (Along with Scarborough and Dan Abrams). BTW if you are pointing out biases in the media where is Fox News? I would say that between Hannity and Colmes, O'Reilly, Shepard Smith, Greta Van S., Brit Hume and others they tend to show a conservative bias? I just see a feeble attack at liberals Matt, nice try."

Fortunately, Bill played right into my trap.

Olbermann and Matthews, like O'Reilly and Hannity, have shows in which they are NOT news anchors. That means, they espouse their opinions, be them liberal or conservative, or a mix (like Hannity's show with Colmes). Such is their right.

However, when those people are hosting a non-opinion forum, such as reporting election returns, they should do their very best to be even-handed. Realize that I don't begrudge Olbermann making fun of conservatives on his show or Matthews giggling at a Republican's speech. I DO think it is unethical for him to spout those opinions when viewers are expecting unbiased election reporting.

What liberals fail to see when lampooning Fox is the fact that Fox hosts are almost never put in positions in which they should be ethically required to be unbiased. They have news anchors for that. Therefore, The Hannitys and O'Reillys are always in "opinion" mode.

This is a very important distinction that Bill failed to see, and I think many liberals and conservatives fail to see it, as well.

-Matt Hittle

Posted at 11:05AM Jan 20, 2008 by College Republicans in Media  |  Comments[0]