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| Daniel Schorr |
The passing of the great CBS/CNN/NPR journalist Daniel Shorr happened the same week the flap over how blogger Andrew Breitbart's incomplete video posting unfairly cost agriculture official Shirley Sherrod her job. These seemingly unrelated stories actually serve to remind us how news coverage has changed, and not necessarily for the better in a world where anyone can start a blog and declare himself a journalist. This trend did not escape the notice of veteran ABC Nightline anchor Ted Koppel, who was a guest yesterday on NPR. Koppel pointed out how government has also gotten caught up in this new media cycle and then having to do damage control. I noticed how bad the Obama administration, the NAACP, conservative bloggers, journalism in general and the cable news channels in particular looked when practically everyone involved paid more attention to poltical expediency or media sensationalism. While Fox News led the cable pack in spreading an inaccurate story for a day, they later spent more time blaming the administration for overreacting than sufficiently owning up to their own part in laying it on so thick. MSNBC's liberal primetime hosts devoted their energy to blaming Fox more than the officials who were involved in improperly firing Sherrod. Ted Koppel sounded a cautionary note about today's media focusing more on giving the public what they want than what they need. Koppel, Schorr and other great journalists searched for truth. That was their agenda.
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