Some Media Shifting to Add Point of View

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• JEFFREY BROWN:

  For more than a century, objectivity — the dispassionate presentation of events and facts — has been considered an ideal in American journalism. That ideal or goal has always coexisted with another long and healthy American tradition: opinion journalism and editorializing.

  But now in print, over the airwaves, and through the Internet, the line that separates the two may be blurring. Taking its cue from the success of talk radio, cable television has more and more offered programs melding news with opinion.

• BILL O’REILLY, Fox News Host:

  … more dishonesty in the media…

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  The FOX News Channel, the cable news ratings leader, has built much of its success through an opinionated evening lineup. News of the day is discussed and debated by hosts like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, who leave little doubt about where they stand.

• LOU DOBBS, CNN Anchor:

  After almost two weeks of intense, sometimes bitter debate…

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  CNN's evening news host, Lou Dobbs, has over time put more and more of his own views into his newscast, notably in his continuing coverage of immigration policy.

• LOU DOBBS:

  Coming up next, a stunning defeat for pro-amnesty senators, pro-amnesty lobbyists in Washington, and their efforts to ram amnesty through the U.S. Senate and impose their will on the American people.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  On MSNBC's "Countdown," host Keith Olbermann regularly makes clear his disdain for the Bush administration, particularly its handling of the Iraq war.

• KEITH OLBERMANN, MSNBC Anchor:

  Our fourth story on the "Countdown," an upset stomach forcing Mr. Bush to skip out on some meetings at the G-8 summit in Germany today. Faced with an administration in perpetual crisis, you might be nauseous, too. In fact, chances are the Bush administration already has you sick to your stomach.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Both Dobbs and Olbermann have seen significant ratings increases over the last year. Olbermann has even adopted the famous signoff of legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow.

• KEITH OLBERMANN:

  Good night, and good luck.

• EDWARD MURROW, Former News Anchor:

  Good evening. We're standing on a rooftop just near Melbourne Road and Harley Street.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Of course, it was Murrow, from his pedestal on CBS News and before an audience of millions, who took on Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.

• WALTER CRONKITE, Former News Anchor:

  For reasons of U.S. pride as much as U.S. tactics, Kasan has been built up into a major bastion.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  More than a decade later, Walter Cronkite, also on CBS, returned from Vietnam and pronounced the war a stalemate.

• WALTER CRONKITE:

  It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could. This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  President Johnson would say later, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

  In recent years, it's mainstream television and newspapers that have been losing Middle America, as viewers and readers flock to the Internet, and its teeming mix of Web blogs opining on the news of the day and so much else.

  Now, two views of the news and views. Callie Crossley is a contributor to the media criticism program "Beat the Press" on Boston's WGBH and program manager at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. She spent 13 years as an award-winning television producer at ABC News and was also a producer of the critically acclaimed PBS documentary series "Eyes on the Prize."

  Jeff Jarvis is author of the Buzzmachine.com Web blog and an associate professor and director of the Interactive Journalism Program at the City University of New York. A former critic for TV Guide, he now writes a new media column for the Guardian newspaper in London.

  Well, Callie Crossley, starting with you, is there a blurring occurring out there? And is it a problem?