Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Are Biased Sources Replacing Standard News Networks in America?
Source: Voice of America More and more Americans are choosing to get their news from sources that reflect their political viewpoints. While the tradition of non-partisan news reporting is still alive in the United States, studies show that the tradition is being challenged by cable networks and the Internet - sources of information that were not widely available just a decade ago.
It used to be that most Americans who were interested in what was going on in the world settled in front of their television sets at around 6:30 each evening and tuned in to one of the three national news broadcasts available on the airwaves. For more than 60 years, CBS, NBC and ABC have been providing Americans with news of the world. Their nightly programs still bear the mark of Edward R. Murrow, the legendary broadcaster who began his career in the 1930s and established honesty, integrity, and non-partisanship in reporting as the industry standard. Today, though, Americans are not always getting a mild-mannered, disinterested report when they tune in to the news. Instead, they often hear pundits yelling at one another about the issues of the day.
That is because viewers are not always tuning in to the standard network programs, the way they used to. Since 2000, the number of Americans turning to cable for their information has been on the rise, and a study conducted last year by the Pew Research Center for People and Press found that more Americans now get their news from the cable networks than from ABC, NBC and CBS. According to Carroll Doherty of the Pew Research Center, this is partly because the cable networks broadcast 24 hours a day, whereas a nightly newscast takes place at a scheduled time - and then is over. "People's lives have gotten busier, commuting times have lengthened over the years," Mr. Doherty says. "The idea of appointment television has declined, and (the networks) are feeling the pinch from that."MORE
It used to be that most Americans who were interested in what was going on in the world settled in front of their television sets at around 6:30 each evening and tuned in to one of the three national news broadcasts available on the airwaves. For more than 60 years, CBS, NBC and ABC have been providing Americans with news of the world. Their nightly programs still bear the mark of Edward R. Murrow, the legendary broadcaster who began his career in the 1930s and established honesty, integrity, and non-partisanship in reporting as the industry standard. Today, though, Americans are not always getting a mild-mannered, disinterested report when they tune in to the news. Instead, they often hear pundits yelling at one another about the issues of the day.
That is because viewers are not always tuning in to the standard network programs, the way they used to. Since 2000, the number of Americans turning to cable for their information has been on the rise, and a study conducted last year by the Pew Research Center for People and Press found that more Americans now get their news from the cable networks than from ABC, NBC and CBS. According to Carroll Doherty of the Pew Research Center, this is partly because the cable networks broadcast 24 hours a day, whereas a nightly newscast takes place at a scheduled time - and then is over. "People's lives have gotten busier, commuting times have lengthened over the years," Mr. Doherty says. "The idea of appointment television has declined, and (the networks) are feeling the pinch from that."MORE
# posted by ATN @ 8:15 PM 
