Tavis Smiley's Video Blog - 10/9/08 | PBS - "Do You Think The Media's Credibility Has Been Dimished?" Excellent Questions!

In answer to questions put to him from PBS Engage (www.pbs.org/engage) Tavis talks about the media's credibility and what his favorite medium is to work in.

Question: "How do you reconcile the fact that the lines between journalist, pundit, and partisan continue to blend? Do you think the media's credibility has been diminshed?"

Excellent questions by a viewer! Excellent answers by Tavis! Very timely. "...Is This Spin? Is This Commentary? Is This News?"

I ask myself that question all the time when I watch CNN, MSNBC, and especially FOX News. All the people that come through and speak and are interviewed on all the topics of the day. Experts? So-called Experts? The Hosts. The Reporters. Etc. I wonder at times what really are we getting? Does FOX News whose slogan is "Fair and Balanced" (Are they kidding us?) promote conservative political positions? Are these folks program hosts, news anchors, correspondents, contributors?

Some other questions that come to mind for me are, When Did Hard News Go Tabloid? 1991? 1992? 1993? When Did The Lines Blur of How We Get Our News and Who We Get It From? Is FOX News a news station or entertainment (FAUX News)? Who do they serve? Who owns FOX? Is the owner Rupert Murdoch of FOX in agreement with all of it's Commentators? Who owns what and who has an agenda and who doesn't?
~LT

Merriam-Webster Definitions:
jour·nal·ist
1 a: a person engaged in journalism ; especially : a writer or editor for a news medium b: a writer who aims at a mass audience
2: a person who keeps a journal

pun·dit
1 : pandit
2 : a learned man : teacher
3 : a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media : critic

par·ti·san
1: a firm adherent to a party, faction, cause, or person ; especially : one exhibiting blind, prejudiced, and unreasoning allegiance
2 a: a member of a body of detached light troops making forays and harassing an enemy b: a member of a guerrilla band operating within enemy lines