You hear it all the time. Politicians bring it up, the media brings it up, and people talk about it in daily conversation. They worry about transparency in the government. They use the last eight years as an example and are pointing it out in this administration. But should transparency stop there? With growing concern in health, people are looking at the food industry to be more transparent and ask the same thing of the pharmaceutical industry. But what about the media?
Shouldn t the media be held to the same standard? We consume our entire knowledge of what s going on in this world through the eyes of the media and ask little questions. Yeah, it s true, Fox supporters point the finger at the liberal media, and sure, the liberal media often criticizes Fox; but until we look at the media as a whole and begin to realize that there is a much bigger picture then just dividing parties, we can t fix the problems.
Do we know who these people really are? I mean, we get the daily news from them, shouldn t we know their educational background, their job history, or organizations they belong to? I did a little bit of Wikipedia research on some of today s biggest political commentators. Here is a list of some of the top political commentators today taken directly from Wikipedia:
Rachel Maddow from MSNBC: ‘A graduate of Castro Valley High School in Castro Valley, California, Maddow earned a degree in public policy from Stanford University in 1994. At graduation she was awarded the John Gardner Fellowship. She was also the recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship and began her postgraduate study in 1995 at Lincoln College, Oxford. In 2001, she completed her Doctor of Philosophy degree (styled a DPhil) in politics from the University of Oxford. Her doctoral thesis is titled HIV/AIDS and Health Care Reform in British and American Prisons.’
Keith Olbermann from MSNBC: ‘While at Hackley, Olbermann began his broadcasting career as a play-by-play announcer for WHTR. After graduating from Hackley in 1975, Olbermann matriculated at Cornell University at the age of 16, a university he chose after being rejected by Harvard but being offered a full scholarship to Boston University that would have required him to complete liberal arts curriculum before becoming a communications major. At college, Olbermann served as sports director for WVBR, a student-run commercial radio station in Ithaca. Olbermann graduated from Cornell in 1979 with a B.S. in communications arts.’
Larry King from CNN: This might surprise you, but Larry King did not attend college. He did make up for this though with his vast knowledge gained from his experience in the media starting in the radio in 1957. His lack of education in my personal belief is excusable because of the time period he started his career. I will talk about him later in the article.
Anderson Cooper from CNN: ‘Cooper graduated from The Dalton School in 1985. He continued his education at Yale University, where he resided in Trumbull College, and claimed membership in Manuscript Society. He studied both Political Science and International Relations and graduated in 1989.
During college, he spent two summers as an intern at the Central Intelligence Agency. Although he technically has no formal journalistic education, he opted to pursue a career in journalism rather than stay with the agency after school, having been a “news junkie” “since I was ‘in utero.’ ”
After his first correspondence work in the early 1990s, he took a break from reporting and lived in Vietnam for a year, during which time he studied the Vietnamese language at the University of Hanoi. Speaking on his experiences in Vietnam on C-SPAN’s Students & Leaders, he said he has since forgotten how to speak the language.’
Rush Limbaugh from the Rush Limbaugh Show: ‘Limbaugh graduated from Cape Central High School, in 1969. His father and mother wanted him to attend college, so he enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University. He dropped out after two semesters and one summer; according to his mother, “he flunked everything”, even a modern ballroom dancing class. As she told a reporter in 1992, “He just didn’t seem interested in anything except radio.” I should also note that Rush considers himself an entertainer. He has a lot of experience in radio and media, but probably doesn t find it necessary to have formal political education.
Bill O Reilly from Fox News: ‘After graduating from Chaminade High School, a private Catholic boys high school in Mineola, in 1967, O’Reilly attended Marist College. While at Marist, O’Reilly played punter in the National Club Football Association, and was also a writer for the school’s newspaper, The Circle. An honors student, he majored in history. He spent his junior year of college abroad, attending Queen Mary College at the University of London. O’Reilly received his B.A. in History in 1971. He played semi-professional baseball during this time, as a pitcher for the New York Monarchs. After graduating from Marist College, O’Reilly moved to Miami, Florida at age 21, where he taught English and history at Monsignor Pace High School for two years. O’Reilly later returned to school and earned an M.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University. While attending Boston University, he was a reporter and columnist for various local newspapers and alternative news weeklies, including The Boston Phoenix. O’Reilly did his broadcast journalism internship in Miami during this time and was also an entertainment writer and movie critic for The Miami Herald. O’Reilly also earned a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. At Harvard, he was a student of Marvin Kalb.’
Glenn Beck from Fox News: ‘Beck was admitted to a special program for non-traditional students at Yale University while he was working for a New Haven-area radio station, having received at least one of his recommendations from Senator Joe Lieberman. During this time Beck took a single theology class, dropping out around the time of his divorce.’
Some of these people don t have a college education. I m going to take Larry King out of the equation since, thinking about it, he doesn t commentate on the news; he more or less asks questions and lets his guests speak for themselves. But as for Rush and Glenn, what is their excuse? People solely get their information about the economy, health, the environment, and healthcare from them and come to find out, they don t have the qualifications to be speaking about this.
Wouldn t you feel more comfortable getting news from someone who actually studied the things that they talk about? Is it okay that someone who has the same educational background as your mailman (no hard feelings to mailmen out there) is literally shaping and changing United States politics? Limbaugh for a long time was the face of the Republican Party and is now being shadowed by Glenn Beck.
I should state that I didn t write this article to trash the right wing media in anyway, but the facts speak for themselves.
This is just the tip of the iceberg here. There is so much more to the idea of transparency in the media. There is a way that Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and other under educated commentators can get away with this. They can have a legitimate, respectable career the same way Larry King does.
How?
The guests they bring on the show of course! Keep an eye out for part 2.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Granted I have yet to see what you say in part 2, I wanted to comment here. You make the claim “People solely get their information about the economy, health, the environment, and healthcare from them and come to find out, they don t have the qualifications to be speaking about this.” I respectfully disagree as that is a generalization of the issue. Allow me to explain.
It’s all about the consumer of the information. While I will agree with you that there is a SMALL number of thick skulls out there that take these two as gospel. The real problem isn’t what’s being reported. It’s about what is not being reported, and where the consumer of the information is getting their news. Take for example Van Jones and the ACORN scandal. The main stream news was no where to be seen. Now I personally found out about both via the internet. And I don’t patronize Rush or Beck.
Look at recent history. Dan Rather and educated man making up stories about a sitting president? PBS for goodness sakes! Problem is can you believe what is coming out of the main stream media? Can you trust that they have the public interest in mind and not a bias? The argument is trying to be made that it’s the messenger and not the message about Rush and Beck. That they are just entertainers and in it for the money. That’s another “Rules for Radicals,” Saul Alinsky’s bible for rabble-rousing technique.