I too worked in radio, TV and newspaper media. Writing, producing, reporting, talking, directing and just good ol' being a jock.
What I remember most though, was my junior year in college, the Dean of Journalism and the Director of Student Publications pulled me into an office one day (I was news editor of the campus paper and they were looking at me for EiC next semester) and said, "if you're going to really make it in this business you have got to become more liberal in your views." I told them I didn't know what they were talking about, what "liberal" was (I didn't) and they began to explain political correctness to me.
I left that meeting going, "hmm.... Did they realize they were talking to a soon to be journalist, a newsman?" And then proceeded to write a award-winning column about that meeting, with verbatim quotes, and all.
Imagine their chagrin. Oh and I turned down the EiC post!
I was probably in the business well before you. In my day ANY detectable bias in a news story whether for print, radio, or television, got your knuckles rapped by the News Desk and, if blatant, would get you fired. We were expected to report Who, Why, What, Where, When, and How and nothing else, and our loyalty was to be to the truth with accuracy and nothing else. Any information that could affect ANYBODY's business, livelihood, privacy, or reputation had to be carefully multiple sourced and verified so that there was no question before it was printed. (Now they put it out there if anybody anywhere says it, even if it is somebody within their own news organization.)
I got out of the business when emotion became more important than hard facts, and I've never regretted leaving. Unfortunately that left most of the media saturated with leftists who deal in emotionalism and facts are almost an afterthought if they are presented at all. Certainly there isn't a lot of effort to be fair and balanced.
Talk radio is often not fair and balanced, but it does at least provide the other side of the story we are getting from the leftist media near monopoly. And Fox News is just about the only mainstream television source we have where we are getting most or all of the news of the day--they will tackle hot button issues that the other media groups ignore or deep six.
So kudos to you for standing on principle. I am hoping that Fox's success will persuade more and more of the media to choose to do so. It won't happen if the Administration is successful in their war on Fox, however.
