Masters of Distortion

I like news. When I watch the news on KITV or KHON or KHON or any other K-something, I feel like I’ve learned something, which I believe to be the general idea of having news in the first place. Why then, do I hate cable news? The answer is, well, it’s not news.
Cable news today is a whole different animal. This ain’t your daddy’s news. Cable news prides itself on being able to deliver issues “that matter”. Many cable news outlets often use that or similar terms to promote their 24/7 tabloid stations. By cable news, I mean CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, and their ilk. What these stations really pride themselves on is the shallow and the sensational, all the while simplifying issues to sound bytes and debates to shouting matches.
The main type of stories I find cable news presents are stories already in the public’s eye, the more controversial the better, which they can exploit for viewership, all the while simplifying it and presenting grown men to debate it until they’re red in the face. For example, take Barack Obama’s recent comments about Western Pennsylvanians being “bitter” and “cling[ing] to guns and religion”. The cable news shows had a field day with it. Conservative hack Sean Hannity (picture), who specializes on catching liberals with their pants down, was more than happy to spread his bile by misinterpreting Obama’s comments. Hannity stated “What he’s saying to Middle America is ‘Hey, you’re a bunch of gun-toting, bible thumping bigots.’”.
One thing Hannity does here is assume that Western Pennsylvania is wholly indicative of the middle class of America, when in reality it is a working class area hit disproportionately hard by a loss of manufacturing jobs, like much of the “rust belt”. The struggle of these people is specific to their situation, and the comments of Obama, while not artfully phrased, are not entirely false. The second, more minor thing he does is substitute in his own word, “bigot”, which Obama never used in his speech. Bigot sounds ugly and less observant viewers are lead to think that Obama actually called Western Pennsylvanians bigots.
The problem with this is that it becomes a runaway train. Pundits say things like “Obama called Western Pennsylvanians bigots” and people listening, who aren’t well informed, assume that Obama said that word for word, when in fact it is a paraphrase of what the pundit believed Obama said. Pretty soon, the actual speech is forgotten, replaced by five word sound bytes. Since sensational news sells, the news networks sensationalize their sound bytes, and the tiniest slip up can become a national fiasco.
Another example of such distortion came when Democratic nominee Howard Dean gave his now infamous campaign speech on the heels of a disappointing 3rd place finish in the Iowa caucus. Dean said:

“Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we're going to California and Texas and New York … And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! BYAW!!!”

This unexpected show of emotion was pounced on by the cable news networks. They used it to portray Dean as an out of control spazz who couldn’t keep a lid on his emotions. Now, all Dean really did do was utter one incoherent syllable, but that syllable was broadcasted 643 times in the next 48 hours on the cable news networks, resulting in a pretty damning 643 incoherent syllables. One, and I’ll let him pass, but 643? That’s the mark of a crazy man!
Now for the back story. Okay, the scream at the end was bizarre, but one thing about the speech was that he was in front of a very large, very loud crowd. To make himself heard, he had to practically scream himself hoarse. To one at the event, he was trying to make himself heard, but his microphone, picking up only his voice, made it seem like he was unnecessarily loud. The speech was typical stump speech material if presented at a normal decibel level, and the cable news shows knew this, but somehow omitted it in their portrayal of the “Dean is a freak” story.
I’m not defending Howard Dean. He should never be in the White House. He is cold and callous, and such a figure doesn’t make you feel comfortable. But the reasons for why he was ousted from the race are unfair. His sin is so much less substantial than a sex or corruption scandal, so it shouldn't have had the same effects. Yet it did. The cable news networks have a responsibility to the public to present news truthfully, but all to often they sacrifice truth to create a more sensational story and boost their ratings. This is the type of stuff that hurts America, and I sincerely wish it would stop.