Is Cable Media just another form of Yellow Journalism, or is it something more malicious? Yellow Journalism as defined by Wikipedia:
Yellow journalism is a type of journalism that downplays legitimate news in favor of eye-catching headlines that sell more newspapers. It may feature exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, sensationalism, or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or journalists.
I contend that cable media uses yellow journalism to further a malicious political agenda. According to the definition yellow journalism is typically done for money not necessarily politics. This does not seem to be the case for cable media. It seems to have a republican or rightwing agenda and it uses yellow journalism tactics to promote it. It 'downplays legitimate news’ that does not serve its political purposes in favor of ‘eye-catching headlines’ about less legitimate news that does. It will exaggerate the emphasis or importance of less legitimate news and focus on ‘scandal-mongering’ and ‘sensationalism’ about political opponents, whether they be individuals or organizations, while downplaying the same about those whom they politically agree.
Fox News is the most obvious example of this type of cable media. Lou Dobbs on CNN has also been guilty of this. After the war in Iraq began to go south, a war he supported, he used his program to distract the public from the problems with the war by focusing instead on illegal immigration a topic that the right feels is more advantageous to them than to the left.
This type of journalism is not restricted to cable. Clear Channel that owns many radio stations that broadcast mainly conservative talk shows also owns many ABC affiliates. It was Clear Channel ABC that broadcast the "9/11" movie glorifying how George Bush handled the events on that day. This was clearly a propaganda piece. It was Clear Channel ABC that insisted on broadcasting the John Kerry "documentary" in advance of the 2004 Presidential election that many felt was nothing more than an anti-Kerry political ad.
This style of journalism is a greater threat to our democracy than dishonest politicians whether they be Democrat or republican or whether they be rightwingers. Those who lie and misrepresent the issues would not be as effective in doing it were it not for their allies in the media using yellow jouranlism tactics. Without this media we likely would not have had the attempt to impeach a duly elected President over a non-Impeachable offense. Without this media we likely would not have had the ill advised war in Iraq. Remember, this media acted as cheerleader as the Bush Administration mislead us into the Iraq war. Without this media, those sounding the alarms about the impending financial crisis may have been more successful. Maybe we would have been able to lessen the impact or we may have been able to avoid the problems altogether.
This form of journalism is becoming more pernicious not less. We cannot afford to just sit by and allow it to continue to go unchallenged.