New Year’s Resolutions for Cable News

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New Year’s Resolutions for Cable News
By Madison Powers, CQ Guest Columnist

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One resolution would be to cover only real news. Obviously, that’s too much to ask. Even a casual observer of twelve-step programs knows that when you are in the resolution business, you need to start off slowly. Adopt some realistic goals and build upon small successes.

A more realistic plan might be to vow not to cover – and recycle endlessly – obviously manufactured controversies.

Take the “Is Obama a Muslim?” controversy.

CNN, for example was early on the scene in debunking the Internet legend in late 2007. But long after any informed journalist had further reason to pursue the matter, except to dismiss it as a phony, CNN kept running its special report which led with the provocative question, as if it were still a matter of legitimate debate, only to dismiss it thirty minutes into the program.

While the intent might have been admirable, the framing of the story in the late stages of the campaign had an unfortunate effect. They might as well have run a parallel special “Is Newt Gingrich a Jew?” In both cases, the answer is no, and in both cases, it should not matter if the answer were yes.

In both cases they should have known that they were risking the further compounding of misinformation and the fanning of prejudice. That they got the right answer was obscured by a format that gave another round of attention to a myth they themselves had debunked.

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