Ben Shapiro and the Blurring Line between Punditry and News

The quicktalking Shapiro didn39t take it well when Neil played devil39s advocate opposing a few policy positions Shapiro is known to favor quotWhy don39t you say you39re on the leftamp160 It39s a serious questionquot Shapiro asked Neil after one such line of questioningamp160 To which Neil the longstanding conservative media person replied quotMr Shapiro if you only knew how ridiculous that statement is you wouldn39t have said itquotamp160 Things got more and more tense as Neil probed a few claims Shapiro makes in his book with Shapiro even going so far as to attack Neil by saying quotI don39t frankly give a damn what you think of me since I39ve never heard of youquotamp160 Shapiro then left the interview ripping off his microphone as Neil thanked him quotfor showing that anger is not part of American political discoursequotThe exchange which is really worth watching in full was notable for a few reasonsamp160 Firstly Shapiro who wasamp160in many respectsamp160made famous for so decisively defeating others in debates was shown not to be as invincible as once thoughtamp160 George W Bush when awarding a Medal of Freedom to Milton Friedman in 2002 joked that his wife Rose was the only person ever to have beaten him an argumentamp160 The same can no longer be said of Shapiro the curator of the 201039s response to Free to Chooseamp160amp160Secondly it showed that it is much easier to be a good sport when on the winning side of thingsamp160 But most fundamentally it showed how journalism ought to work and how it so often falls short in the United States and elsewhere Despite Neil being a conservative himself he didn39t pull a single punch because in his capacity as a journalist on BBC he was being just that a journalist not a commentator or quotan advocacy journalistquotTo this effect Neil tweeted two days later quotSo now I39m an evil leftist AND a rightwing fanaticamp160 Who knew what drivel Twitter can descend to Especially since I have not expressed a position on any matter of public debate for over a decade now as befits a BBC presenterquotamp160 To suggest that this comes down to a difference between American and British political discourse is to miss the point and the BBC of course is no stranger to criticism including for primarily giving air time to the positions championed by the two mainstream political parties Conservative and Labour and thereby having a quotproestablishmentquot biasamp160 The British press particularly on the print side is notorious for its sensationalism just as the goingson in Westminster make the chambers of Capitol Hill seem like a train39s quiet caramp160 Rupert Murdoch to this point fresh from London found the American press almost dull given its efforts at impartiality during his earliest forays into American media in 1973The partisanship of American media has fluctuated over time During much of the 19th century there was arguably little distinction to be drawn between the political parties and the newspapers that aligned with them editors at some papers as told by journalism professor James L Baughman moonlighted as advisors to the very politicians they were coveringamp160 But by the middle of the 20th century American media mostly driven by economic forces made it so quotAmerican political debate was increasingly conducted in a bland eventempered atmosphere and extremists of any kind are becoming rarequotamp160 Some commentators have attributed this move to the middle as actually an aberration in the history of partisanship in media and driven by advertisers wanting to reach people of all political persuasions in the same outletBut then came the end of the FCC39s fairness doctrine in 1987 The Telecommunications Act in 1996amp160and the growing trends towards combining news reporting with analysis arguably opening a Pandora39s Box of blurred lines between reporting the facts and commenting on themamp160 Rush Limbaugh Fox News and MSNBC rose in prominence and now we have the partisan press of todayamp160 So it39s little wonder Shapiro would have such a difficult time allowing for the possibility that someone questioning him earnestly would in fact be on his side of the political aisleamp160 As Neil mentioned during the interview quotI know that broadcasting in America is now so polarized that on one programamp160you only have the left and on another one you just have the rightamp160 My job is to question those who have strong views and put an alternative to themquotamp160 This all comes at a time when the Rand Corporationamp160this monthamp160issued a reportamp160which argues that during the period of 19892017 quotUSbased journalism has gradually shifted away from objective news and offers more opinionbased content that appeals to emotion and relies heavily on argumentation and advocacyquotquotThere are not many bucks to be made on the BBC unlike American broadcastingquot responded Neil to Shapiro39s claim that the former was trying to make him look good bad for a quotquick buckquotamp160 The BBC after all is funded primarily through the license fee paid by British households rather than advertising revenue not to mention the BBC39s Royal Charter requiring some degree of balancing the viewpointsamp160 Perhaps that39s part of the storyNo media outlet is perfect in its objectivityamp160 And as has been noted the BBC has faced as much criticism as anyone from the previously mentioned point on a proestablishment bias to its coverage of certain ethnic and religious groups including Catholics to the means by which it is primarily fundedamp160 But sincere efforts at impartiality on the part of journalists should be rewarded no matter where they workamp160 Neil39s questioning of Shapiro save for a few moments where it may have arguably ventured into quotgotchaquot territory was commendableamp160 Anderson Cooper39s commitment to abstain from voting so long as he is in journalism is similarly admirable as are the rare occasions when broadcast journalists refrain from kicking someone who is already downamp160 Perhaps one day we will need a Profiles in Couragestyle book written about those who in the age of a polarized media resisted the urge to join the partisan herdamp160 But until then journalists would be wise to take a page from Neil and thoroughly question every interviewee even those on their ideological teamamp160 If they do there39s a good chance they both might learn somethingClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Ben Shapiro and the Blurring Line between Punditry and News

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