So Barbara Star, The CNN Pentagon Anchor, is always at the Pentagon

[WCGreen]

or traveling with the folks at the Pentagon and basically just repackaging the propaganda of the Pentagon into a report that sounds like news.

My question, why bother with Ms. Star?

I imagine she still fancy's herself a journalist, someone who is reporting important stuff. But if all you do is hang out at the Pentagon, what can you really be reporting except the official line with a few explanations from "sources" who give the official unofficial background of the Pentagon to explain the "real story.

[elleng]

1. Thats what REPORTERS do.

ANALYSTS do other things.

[WCGreen]

2. I don't think reporters just take press releases and read them...

[Captain Hilts]

3. Is she supposed to inject opinion into 'reporting'???

She's okay by me. She tells me what the folks in the Pentagon are doing and saying.

[WCGreen]

4. Why have a 'reporter" then, just read the press releases and be done with it...

I was taught, way back when I fancied a career as a journalist, that you should always look for the story behind the story.

If all you do is reread the press releases from the organization that you are suppose to be covering, then call yourself a PR person and don't put yourself out as a journalist.

I guess I came of age when being a reporter, a journalist, meant more than just reporting one side of the story.

Perhaps we now accept this for journalism.

That to report is just that, read what is handed you.

My question is then why bother with a person there at the Pentagon? Just read the press release from the Pentagon and be done with it. After all, that is "reporting."

What if Woodward and Bernstein just reported what was given them and never questioned or verified anything?

[Spazito]

5. Starr is merely a regurgitator, imo...

CNN, in it's 'wisdom' thinks, by using the regurgitator instead of going directly to the press releases, the American public will believe CNN is neutral. It is the same 'wisdom' that keeps the racist Dobbs on their network.

[WCGreen]

6. Exactly and I am peplexed that people think reporting is just that;

reporting only what is handed to them...

[Spazito]

7. I can only speculate why regurgitating has been inculcated into some people's as....

reporting because the media only regurgitates now and calls it reporting. Reporting, to me, is when something stated by the Pentagon is researched as to whether what they are stating is factual or not, providing context around the report BEFORE going on air. No punditry, straight reporting on the FACTS (I know, silly of me to think this way, lol).

[WCGreen]

8. Perhaps it's just too much opinion confusing the idea of reporting...