by Brian T. Lynch, MSW
Here is what a bias news watch organization has to say. I’ve added my comments. What’s yours? Please feel free to comment here.
I think of her more as a news commentator, or news synthesizer, who occasionally breaks important stories that are ignored by the mainstream news media. She and her producers report conventional news items, but they also search the internet for local news stories that should be of national interest, stories that are too often ignored. They do their fact checking and they develop their own news gathering contributions to these stories. They serve as both a filter and amplifier. The choice of stories they pursue does reveals a liberal bias which they take pains not to hide. But most importantly, they almost always get their facts right. They don’t make stuff up to fit a biased political narrative as happens on the Fox News network
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But if you criticize Dr. Maddow for not being a serious news anchor, than what must we say about the utterly silly and insignificant news that serious “news anchors” toss out to their fickle public every day? Doesn’t this low information drivel make them illegitimate news anchors as well?
I no longer watch the “legitimate” news shows because these outlets are not providing me with the critical information I need every day to understand what’s really happening in our world. Too often they report as news the bias statements of people in power. They fail to connect the dots when local stories form national patterns. This latter problem is what allowed ALEC to fly so long under the radar of the main stream press,
Corporate national news outlets have their own agenda, and it is usually about market share and advertising dollars, not reporting news that might anger key market segments. If viewer share on the Rachael Maddow Show grew significantly, so would the pressure to conform to standards that would not risk loosing those viewers.
Data Driven Viewpoints 
I don’t do television. I occasionally watch Rachel–when my mom alerts me to a particularly good show. Mostly I triangulate my news on the net. One cannot trust one source–but if you follow several (especially including at least one foreign source) you’re likely to be able to discern the truth. Who knew that being a responsible citizen could be so much work. In the age of information–truth is a victim.
I agree with you totally. Triangulate? I do the same. I was thinking of it as a CAT scan, but triangulate does it for me. It is so much work to be truly informed these days. I usually beat Maddow when it comes to discovering important news items, but then she usually beats the main stream press by days or weeks. It is so depressing to read something in the New York Times that I have know and been writing about for weeks or months. It took my local paper literally years before they published their first story on the vulnerabilities of electronic voting machines, and I was sending them letters and information several times a week for over a year. I don’t understand what it takes for a public problem to become a public issue worthy of media attention. Look how long we have had a problem with law enforcement attitudes and techniques before it became newsworthy? How many people had to die?
I was introduced to the HBO series “The Newsroom” – – and have loved the ideals expressed in the show – – – if you haven’t caught it yet, you might want to – – by Aaron Sorkin, of West Wing fame – – that said, I walked away from watching/reading the ‘traditional news’ years ago – – – and yet, I watch the play-pretend “Newsroom” and think, “If only there was a news show like that – – but, que-sera, sera 🙂 If you aren’t familiar with it – here’s the first 8 minutes of episode 1 – – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqOYBabXmA
I follow The News Room. Love it. And thank you for all your support of my posts. I really appreciate it. Have a very happy holiday.
You as well!