Misrepresentation in the Media

After reading, "Governing in the Age of Fox News," I was itching to blog about the following quote:

"Not since the 19th century have presidents had to deal with partisan media of this kind, and even that comparison is imperfect. Today the media saturate everyday life far more fully than they did in early American history. Fox News, in particular, is in a league by itself. In the absence of clear national leadership in the Republican Party, Fox’s commentators (together with Rush Limbaugh) have effectively taken over that role themselves. Although they have their liberal counterparts on MSNBC, the situation is not exactly symmetrical, because MSNBC’s commentators do not have as strong a following and the network’s reporting is not as ideologically driven as Fox’s."

Fox News Channel is without a doubt a conservative leaning network.  Although they actually have a strong Democratic and Independent following as seen in a Pew Research Center survey.  And as for Fox being more ideologically driven than MSNBC, that same survey seems to suggest otherwise. The following statistics from the survey, show the break down of the two networks viewership according to political party:

• FNC: 39% Republican, 33% Democratic, 22% Independent
• MSNBC: 18% Republican, 45% Democratic, 27% Independent

While I do believe Fox is true to their slogan of providing viewers with "fair and balanced" news, their political commentary shows are absolutely without a doubt, conservative.  The difference between Fox's political commentators, such as Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, and the political commentators on MSNBC, such as Chris Matthews, is that Chris Matthews presents himself as a journalist, while Hannity and Beck do not.

According to Chris Matthews, his job as a journalist was to ensure the success of the Obama presidency.  His understanding of journalism is to promote the candidate he supports, as opposed to presenting both sides so that people can make educated decisions regarding the presidential elections.
It is not possible for people to make unsolicited, well-informed decisions regarding the presidential election (or any other topic for that matter), if the people telling the news are practically gushing over a candidate.
Matthews, a well respected "journalist"portrayed Obama as not merely a presidential candidate, but rather the essential societal-transformative figure of his generation. Matthews, among others, saw electing the first Black president of the United States as too historically important to fail, and they believed it was their responsibility as journalists to effect change in society.

When all sense of objectivity is lost and journalists decide that they are responsible for effecting social change, what they don’t realize is that “no one wins in the long run when we don’t have a free and fair press.”  According to Michael Malone, “The traditional media is playing a very, very dangerous game. With its readers, with the Constitution, and with its own fate.” When the media can no longer report impartial stories, and fight for transparent government by asking hard questions of presidential candidates in order to keep the American people well-informed of who it is they are voting for, our democracy is jeopardized."

The main difference between Fox and MSNBC, is that Fox's political commentators do not believe that they are journalists.  They understand their roles as political commentators and are upfront and open about their political viewpoints.  On the other hand, MSNBC's political commentators believe that they are journalists who are merely reporting facts.  This kind of misrepresentation in the media is extremely dangerous and is what Michael Malone is speaking out against.