Dan Rather and News vs. Entertainment

Yesterday, we reported on Larry King's bumpage of Michael Moore in favor of an exclusive Paris Hilton interview. It seems to relate rather well to Dan Rather's recent critique of his former network's Evening News. Rather criticized the Katie Couric-lead CBS Evening News for "dumbing it down and tarting it up." CBS corporate chief Leslie Moonves fired back, calling the comment "sexist." Now, I highly doubt the chief of a network putting its weight Two and a Half Men and the King of Queens is any champion of feminism, but it was a convenient use of a buzz word in hopes of discrediting Rather. But this isn't an issue of gender, as Rather articulately put it in his recent FOX News interview...

The contradiction of the CBS Evening News is quite simple - put forth stories in hopes of getting a younger audience watching the news, while simply cutting access to the "less interesting" information that you usually can only find on the news. Rather's critique is of the news media as a whole, alluding to the independent voices who have become more reliable for such newsworthy information. Rather's maintained his integrity as host of Dan Rather Reports on HDNet, which he acknowledges as playing to a much smaller audience.

Now, I can't pretend to not be a fan of entertainment news. In fact, I report gossip here far more than anything on, say, the war in Iraq. But there does seem something fundamentally wrong with the news not serving its actual purpose. News is not about ratings, and we have spaces especially created for celebrity news and gossip. The "news" as we know it should not be competing with this. The debate for me is not as to whether Paris Hilton is more important than healthcare and Iraq, but why we cannot easily access information on either. Rather argues that CBS knows about entertainment, but not news - and I would say the line between the two has been blurred. This isn't simply the culture industry at work - this increase in celebrity gossip as actual news was created largely by public demand. At the same time, why CNN or CBS or any news outlet should even be worrying about TMZ.com or Access Hollywood is a good fucking question.