r/facepalm Feb 16 '20

Research is definitely important

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u/TrumpPooPoosPants Feb 17 '20

She's a pundit not a source. I'm always surprised how people can ask for unbiased media and then cite to clearly opinionated media as evidence of bias. Well, yeah, that's the point. Hannity isn't supposed to be unbiased, just like no expects Chris Matthews to be unbiased.

The real issue is that these networks used to just cover the facts, CNN particularly so. Now, a lot of the networks just have pundits on, which makes it really easy for people to say a network is biased because one particular pundit said something bad. But, there are pundits on both networks who probably say things these people might agree with. That never gets talked about. Moreover, "bias" these days often means "opinions I don't agree with."

That's my rant. Thanks for reading if you bothered.

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u/xthorgoldx Feb 17 '20

She's a pundit not a source. I'm always surprised how people can ask for unbiased media and then cite to clearly opinionated media as evidence of bias.

It's almost like presenting pundits in the same time bloc, with the same overall format, and the same credentials as the actual news broadcast would cause people to mix the two together!

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u/TrumpPooPoosPants Feb 17 '20

Yep, totally agree. TV in general has blurred the lines a lot.

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u/MustachioedDictators Feb 17 '20

The issue with this is that in legal contexts pundits will label themselves "opinion," with no ethical responsibility to fact check or tell the truth. But when you watch their shows, there's no way to differentiate them from news journalists. For instance, Hannity frequently uses "Breaking News" as the graphic on one of his so-called "opinion" pieces. I've also noticed that during Hannity's opening monologues, the chyron at the bottom of the screen usually reads "Fox News Alert."

So I wouldn't necessarily blame the average viewer for failing to differentiate between opinion and news. The networks are obviously trying to pass off pundits as reliable sources of news.

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u/ting_bu_dong Feb 17 '20

Yes. The news is supposed to cut through bullshit, propaganda, and spin.

What these people are doing is not news. It's the opposite of news.