New Trier alumni and 2010 class president, Max Rice successfully duped the highest rated AM newscast, “Fox and Friends,” and barely had to lift a finger. Although some have written off his appearance as a just another juvenile prank, Rice explains there was greater meaning behind the morning hoax.
His appearance speaks to a growing problem in our age of modern news. “They say that reality is fantasy, and it’s dangerous because that’s all people are exposed to and the only way they’re absorbing information,” explained Rice.
The point of the segment was to interview someone who voted for Obama in the 2008 election, but is now a Mitt Romney supporter. While all news stations usually subject their guests to pre-interviews, Rice described it “more like pre-lecturing. They were just feeding me lines. It felt like a TV show.”
In fact, one of the emails sent by a “Fox and Friends” representative read: “Main focus, as we discussed, is you voted for Obama based on the promises of hope and change, that he’d fix the economy…but now you can’t find a job, and that promise hasn’t been kept.”
This is very telling to the fact that there needs to be a separation between news and entertainment. Too often there is a gray area where the genres overlap, resulting in a misinformed electorate.
Both liberal and conservative media outlets have been guilty of skewing their reports to help one side of the aisle over the other. The point is that they’re creating stories as opposed to reporting them.
According to talkingpointsmemo.com, Rice said, “Our media should be a tool to educate the masses, instead of getting ratings and selling Cheetos. This is proof.” Aaron Sorkin’s HBO series “The Newsroom” also touched on this idea when news anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) read an apology to the public about the direction that the modern media has taken, stating:
“It might come as a surprise to you that some of history’s greatest American journalists are working right now. Exceptional minds with years of experience and an unshakable devotion to reporting the news. But these voices are a small minority now and they don’t stand a chance against the circus when the circus comes to town. They’re over matched.”
Several stations have been prone to this type of biased behavior, and for many people it’s the only news source they tune into. News stations are supposed to be a forum for facts and a place the public can rely on to stay informed on the happenings of the world.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of magazine The Nation, appeared on C-SPAN and elaborated on the media’s need for a substance make-over. “We get a little more substance from time to time, but look again at the [presidential] debate… It was treated more like a theater performance than actually grappling with the substance.”
It’s concerning that most teenagers can list all six members of the “Jersey Shore” cast than have an informed opinion on this year’s presidential candidates. Now I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy the occasional fist-pump fix, but as a citizen who will soon be old enough to vote, it’s imperative to be educated on the current issues that face our country.