By Brigitte L. Nacos
This morning, I saw the words “ALERT” and “LIVE” on the
screen when I clicked on the Fox News channel and “live” pictures of the
motorcade that brought Anna Nicole Smith’s body to a private plane for the trip
to the Bahamas. I
saw similar pictures of this “breaking news” on the other networks. What a
relief, when I switched to MSNBC-TV and the “Imus in the Morning” show, where Mr.
Imus, the host, devoted a great deal of time to truly important news that was
originally reported by the Washington
Post and is daily updated or commented
on in the Washington paper: the latest developments in the Army’s Walter
Reed Medical Center, namely, the firing of the officer in charge of the
facility, Army Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, and his temporary replacement by
Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley. While ridiculing the “live” shots of the on-going Anna
Nicole Smith non-story—even on the network that carries his show, Mr. Imus did
not mince words as he pointed to those responsible for the outrageous
conditions at the very facility where severely wounded soldiers from the Iraq
and Afghanistan conflicts are treated.
He rightly dwelt on the fact that the officer picked to
replace the fired Major General was actually in charge of Walter Reed until
about six months ago and is as clueless as the fired Weightman. Imus blamed not
only the now fired and the new former commander but also the Secretaries of
the Army and Veterans Affairs—and he called for their resignation or firing. He
did not spare members of congressional committees charged with oversight
responsibilities either. When Senator Joe Lieberman was on the phone, Mr. Imus put
him through the wringer of a barrage of tough questions that you do not hear so
directly and consistently from the talking heads in television news programs.
Once upon a time, TV network news divisions strove to
present their audiences what they deemed important—not just interesting. There
was a commitment to provide viewers and listeners with public affairs news and inform
citizens and voters so that they could make educated judgments about public
policies and candidates for public offices.
During the golden years of network news, those in charge of
the news divisions strove for strict separations between news and
entertainment. But as large corporations without any commitment to quality news
but lots of commitment to Wall Street put the profit squeeze on the news
divisions, they also broke down the fire walls between news and entertainment
opting increasingly for infotainment.
Years ago, I watched Tim Russert interviewing Don Imus. When a topic concerning the news of the day came up—and I do not remember the nature of the news item they talked about--, Mr. Imus said something like, “I am an entertainer, not a journalist.” This morning, when I heard the very needed and hard hitting news-related questions on “Imus in the Morning” and not on the network morning shows, I remembered that remark because it was so obvious that the boundaries are finally no longer in place in large parts of today’s television landscape.
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