News should just be news

Jeff Walker
Published: September 9, 2008

Why can’t the news just be the news anymore? It’s one thing for newspaper columnists and commentators to offer their own analysis of a major event or political situation. I miss the days when the main news presenters, or anchors, just reported the facts.

If you are younger than 40, you grew up and came of age in the era of CNN and all that followed. Cable News Network, founded by Ted Turner, went on the air June 1, 1980.

We take it for granted today, but back then a 24-hour news channel was big news all by itself. Another era came to a close less than a year after CNN started broadcasting.

Here is how that era in television news ended: “This is my last broadcast as the anchorman of the CBS Evening News; for me, it’s a moment for which I long have planned, but which, nevertheless, comes with some sadness. For almost two decades, after all, we’ve been meeting like this in the evenings, and I’ll miss that. Old anchormen, you see, don’t fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that’s the way it is: Friday, March 6, 1981 ... Good night.”

Uncle Walter said goodnight on his last regular CBS Evening News broadcast that night. “The most trusted man in television” moved on to his next chapter. For Baby Boomers and those of us who followed them, there was one man who we considered the most trusted man in television: Walter Cronkite.

Cronkite told us about JFK’s assassination and even showed some emotion. He anchored the news that sent us to the moon. He hosted the footage from the heart of the Vietnam War. He covered the political conventions, Watergate, the energy crisis, and the warming of the Cold War.

The point is, Cronkite just reported the news. If he did make a commentary, he would not end the broadcast with his signature, “And that’s the way it is” sign off.

Cronkite has said he had to separate his analysis and opinion from the objective news coverage.

In other words, Walter Cronkite was not only a man of integrity, he was a journalist with integrity, which is even more commendable.

And in today’s landscape of broadcasting, integrity seems to be a rare commodity.

Thanks to the Internet, I do not find myself watching much network news. I know, I know, there can be biased coverage everywhere, including the Web.

To me, however, that’s just part of the challenge of being a newshound. Looking here and there to compare coverage of various events and making up my own mind about what I think is part of the fun.

I just want the news and to cut through the spin.

If you, too, want to cut through the spin, I have some suggestions for you. There are some excellent Web sites which offer a more balanced approach to news and events of the day.

One such Web site is FactCheck.org, whose mission is “to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.”

FactCheck.org is nonpartisan and nonprofit, and accepts no funding from political parties, labor unions, or special interest groups.

If you’d like to look at the “Truth-o-meter,” “Flip-o-meter,” or the “Attack File,” look no further than Politifact.com. A project of the St. Petersburg Times and the Congressional Quarterly, Politifact takes the statements and actions of candidates and shows what is true or false and where they changed their tune.

If you want to follow the money, especially in campaigns and elections, then check out OpenSecrets.org.

Jeff Walker is an independent columnist who lives in Culpeper. He appears Wednesdays in the Star-Exponent. E-mail: