Do the Right Thing

Spirit, science, and health.

by Thomas Plante, PhD

Why does everyone have to shout on cable news?

When I was young watching television news wasn't a blood sport.

Published on December 12, 2009 by Thomas G. Plante, Ph.D., ABPP in Do the Right Thing

Call me old fashioned but when I was young watching television news wasn't a blood sport.
Maybe I am naieve but my memory of the news was that it was presented in what appeared to be an objective, unbiased, thoughtful, and respectful manner. Boy, have things changed! I suppose that cable news such as Fox in particular but now others as well might be considered more of an entertainment channel than thoughtful and serious news. I certainly am just amazed listening to the ranting and raving. Sadly, as a psychologist and an ethicist, I believe that these channels are doing a serious disservice and injustice to the public. While perhaps they feel compelled to say the most outlandish and baseless things to increase viewers and ultimately advertising dollars, I wonder where their professional and personal ethics are in all of this.

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In my book, Do the Right Thing: Living Ethically in an Unethical World, I highlight 5 critical ethical values that most people would endorse. These were discussed in an earlier blog post but in a nutshell, ethical people generally strive to be responsible, respectful, maintain integrity, are competent, and express concern for others. Sadly, I don't think that any of these entertainers or channels would score very well on any of these dimensions. They certainly don't treat their guests in a respectful manner. It is hard to imagine that they maintain integrity and really believe what they say on the air. The responsibility of providing fair and balanced objective news certainly doesn't occur either.

I would hope that cable news would move to the comedy channel or perhaps one of the other cable entertainment channels such as Bravo where I think it best belongs.

Doing the right thing for the general public is to provide fair and balanced objective news that is for the common good. Not doing so may increase viewership and revenue but it certainly isn't the ethical thing to do. When I think of their shows as entertainment rather than news I find that my blood pressure is reduced yet still elevated.