Senator Rockefeller wants FCC to 'End' Fox News, MSNBC

During a committee meeting on Wednesday about television retransmission consent, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) veered away from his prepared remarks to take aim at both Fox News and MSNBC:

"More than just retransmission consent ails our television markets. We need new catalysts for quality news and entertainment programming. I hunger for quality news. I'm tired of the right and the left. There's a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to Fox and to MSNBC, "Out. Off. End. Goodbye." It'd be a big favor to political discourse, our ability to do our work here in Congress, and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future."

As the New York Times points out "There is little the Federal Communications Commission can say about Fox News or MSNBC since the channels are on cable, not delivered over the broadcast airwaves."
Rockefeller opened his remarks with a stinging rebuke of the 24-hour news cycle and the blurring of news and entertainment:

"When it comes to developing content, our entertainment machine is too often in a race to the bottom. In fact, it is in a race to the bottom. Getting close. Even worse, our news media has all but surrendered to the forces of entertainment. And much of our news media is entertainment as opposed to news. Instead of a watchdog that is a check on the excesses of government and business, we have the endless barking of a 24-hour news cycle. We have journalism that is always ravenous for the next rumor, but insufficiently hungry for the facts that can nourish something called our democracy. As citizens, we are paying one heck of a price in the dumbing down of America. You're probably responsible for that."

Watch

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/18/senator-rockefeller-wants_n_785253.html

My Opinion

In class all semester we have been discussing how the media can help or hurt politics. We have also been talking how different forms of media exist such as free media and biased media. We have also discussed how some media sources are a lot more biased than other news sources. Fox News, is an examole we all used in class that tends to favor a particular side.

Fox News slogan is Balanced and Fair, but are they really balanced and fair? Or do they tend to serve to Republican side a bit more. It isn't strange that a Democratic senator would be saying this about Fox News, becuase a Republican would certainly not say this about the news station.

Senator Rockefeller says that news stations does not serves us as citizens well. He says that one of the reasons he believes this is because our news seems to be more entertainment based. He mentions that journalisim has become more hungry for rumors than for the facts that can nourish our democracy.

I completely agree with senator Rockefeller. I agree that news has become a lot more entertainment based and that hard news tends to stay out of the picture now a days. Soft news has become more dominant with the rise of popular culture and with that hard news begins to diminish.

The only time you see hard news on t.v. these days is when there is a crisis or an election, other than that its just celebrity gossip and rumours. I agree when Senator Rockefeller says we need a new catalyst for quality news.Objectivity is key to news sources and media outlets, but a lot that has vanished. We need a news source that is not biased and that is literally fair and balanced and does not just portray that false image. This may never happen, because we all all humans and eventually emotions will play a role in everything we do. If it does happen though, I believe that we will become more informed citizens that will be able to contribute to the community in a positive manner.

-HR