All the news that fits our views.

• Author: Saltzman, Joe
• Position: Words & Images - Bias in news media - Column

IT USED TO BE SO EASY. The division between news and editorial commentary was clear and unbreakable in the TV world of the 1960s. The news was presented by a reliable anchor (reaching its pinnacle with Walter Cronkite and Chet Huntley-David Brinkley). If there was time, a commentator or analyst (such as Eric Severeid) would give his views on a specific news event or personality of the day. This all was serious business with little time for fluff and certainly no time for idle chit chat among on-air reporters. Most people made listening to the TV news and reading newspapers a daily habit, an important part of their need to be informed.

There never was much question about a news organization's integrity or responsibility. People accepted TV news as an honest attempt to bring them the important events of the day accurately and fairly. Although the news personalities soon were to become national celebrities, people accepted them first and foremost as newspeople, not entertainers or commentators.

Today, things are different. Surveys show that a large percentage of the American public now picks its news media on the basis of how closely they represent their personal and political views. The thin line between reporting news and editorial commentary is being obliterated. Such organizations as Fox News Channel make no bones about catering to their audience and often will comment, in strong and partisan terms, their opinions concerning the stories they are coveting. The major national media, including network news, are losing audiences to opinionated cable news channels, radio talk shows, and Internet websites that specialize in pleasing specific segments of the audience.

While throughout history people always have migrated to sources of information that reflected their ethnic, political, and social strata, the national TV newscasts in the 1950s and 1960s did a good job of bringing various segments of society together with neutral reporting of the day's events. We all basically heard the same information and made our decisions based on that information. Today, however, news producers, editors, and reporters are beginning to formal the news of the day to reinforce their audiences' biases.

Supporters of this movement talk about the historic lack of objectivity and truth in news coverage by the three networks and the national newspapers, citing a liberal bias. Yet, words such as "objectivity" and "truth" muddy the waters. There is no such thing as...