Competition among cable news outlets is harmful to journalism, because it means network producers have controlover the content of the news instead of the reporters. This is badbecause most networks are not neutral and are generally aligned with onepolitical party over the other. The polarized nature of politicsmeans a network siding with one political ideology over the other resultsin an increased amount of positive versus negative stores for the particularideology they are supporting. I would agree with Mr. Capus commentthat, “Competition among cable news outlets can create an environmentthat is “harmful” to journalism.
I think the answer to solving thisproblem lies in the internet. The internet as a news source allowspeople to research what they are interested in and can formulate opinionsbased on all of the information available, not a two minute sound byteof someone else’s opinion. The information, on the inter internetis found quickly and you are unlikely to find the same viewpoint on a story. Thompson, 2011, quotes Ben Sherwood of ABC as saying, Yahoo Newsrepresented the ability of modern news to reach an ever-broader audiencewith more diverse and exciting content. Yahoo in one month reaches95% of the American electorate.” The reason this is important isbecause this is an astounding number of people the media can reach…viathe internet. Cable news networks do not have this capability. Aperson must be watching as show at a particular time to obtain news infoand generally the people watching the show have the same ideology as thereporter, so the chance of obtaining an opposing viewpoint is limited. The internet can help mitigate this.
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