The Difference Between Journalism and Editorial Content

This video is from Jon Stewart’s interview with Lou Dobbs, former CNN anchor. Go watch it, and then come back.

I’ll wait.

Done? Good. Welcome back…

The part that kills me about Dobbs is his inability — or unwillingness — to remove his opinion from the journalism he is supposed to be conducting. He calls infusing news with his opinion “advocacy journalism.” All programs like his are just editorial content disguised as news. It’s disgusting.

Not to say there isn’t a place for opinion — opinion is fine, as long as it is labeled as such. Mixing news and opinion — like FOX News, Dobbs and others do day after day — confuses viewers, colors the news and affects public opinion.

These aren’t the roles journalists are supposed to fill. In school, journalism students have “Leave your opinion out of it” drilled into their heads time after time. It’s great to see CNN starting to remember those lessons.

Sure, shedding people like Lou Dobbs will mean shedding some viewers, but CNN seems committed to real, middle-of-the-road news reporting. In a world where FOX News is wildly popular, it’s refreshing to see a major news corporation putting their foot down when it comes to separating news and editorial content.