Opinion Over Journalism

In this city, in the husband's industry, wage earners are up and out the door early. It is rare for my husband to still be home at 6:30 A.M. So, this morning as I was settling in to drink coffee and watch the local NBC affiliate for news and weather the time was about 5:15 A.M. I like the news team on the early morning broadcast, they are young and keep it as light as possible. I don't need serious and grumpy first thing in the morning. That's my job.

At 5:30 A.M. one of the news anchors began an interview with Richard Engel, the NBC correspondent who covers the war in Iraq. He has been there from the beginning of the war and continues to report from there today. He's on a book tour and was promoting the book this morning all over the network.

I switched the channel and fired off an email to the news station that while I understand he is a network employee, I didn't appreciate his interview first thing in the morning.

Why? I have seen some interesting reports from Iraq from the man but mostly it is his opinion laced with the story. He has openly stated he is a 'pacifist' and that "the U.S. invaded the wrong country." According to the transcript up on NewsBusters.org of his interview with Meredith Vieira on the Today Show, in his book, Engel also calls the Iraq war "a war of opportunity".

That fact that he has these personal opinions doesn't bother me. The fact that he is just another talking head posing as a journalist spouting off as though his opinions are the facts is what bothers me.

Engel admits that things are "getting better" but that is rarely reported by him on air. As the NewsBusters article points out, neither the Today Show nor the Nightly News have reported that the month of May saw the fewest number of U.S. servicemen killed in Iraq, and Iraqi civilians, too.