Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Politics Makes For Strange Bedfellows

Drudge is reporting today that
on the night of June 24, the media and government will become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!
ABC news is teaming up with the Obama White House to do a special on health care in America. On June 24, Charlie Gibson will do the World News from the Blue Room of the White House.

In a letter to the head of ABC news, Ken McKay, Republican National Committee Chief of Staff states that, "according to an ABC News report, Good Morning America, World News, Nightline and ABC's web news 'will all feature special programming on the president's health care agenda.'" There will also be a prime time special "town hall meeting" that day, where ABC will choose members of the audience who will question the president.

This certainly does nothing to uphold the appearance of unbiased news reporting.

Just imagine if Walter Cronkite had broadcast the news from the White House trying to explain in news programs broadcast throughout the day, Johnson's rationale for raising troop strength, or Nixon's proclamation of innocence in the Watergate cover up.

In a free and democratic society, government and media should be separate entities. The media's job is to report on the government, not to join it.

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