Quote of the Day: On Fairness, Politics and the Media

Followers of the news have more sources than ever; television, internet, even newspapers (some still exist and even have readers). This plethora of sources regrettably sow confusion as their reports are more editorial than news. Just think of a network and you immediately associate that network with an ideological orientation which carries over to its news coverage and reporting. The same obviously applies to the print media as well. Internet news sites make no effort to pretend that they are objective or non-partisan. So what can the news consumer do? Consider what Irving Thalberg, the boy wonder of Hollywood in its golden age said after the November 1934 elections which were particularly “dirty” in California

     “Nothing is unfair in politics. We could sit down here and figure dirty things all night ,

      and every one of them would be all right in a political campaign…. Fairness in an elec-

      tion is a contradiction in terms. It just doesn’t exist.”

So whether you watch CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC or read the NY Times, Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal, keep in mind that they have a point of view which affects every story they report on, no matter what the subject may be. The reader or viewer must be alert to filter the reports and hopefully arrive at some level of objective understanding of just what is going on in this complex world. It’s not so simple anymore.

Garry S. Sklar

Las Vegas, NV

May 10, 2025