This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE 7/27/04

Where do you get your national news?

Sunday I watched a panel discussion which included the three major news anchors on television, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and Peter Jennings. They claim that they reach 30 million American homes each night.

When asked if there is any pressure exerted on their news choices.....all answered definitely in the negative.

Yet.....news itself is a pressure. Having been in the newspaper and radio business, including news, I can say that without hesitation.

Let me explain.

It is not news that five thousand Oregonians travelled U.S. 97 today. It is news if one of them had an accident and someone was seriously injured or killed.

It is the unusual.....not the usual....that makes news.

I point this out because television news anchors and tv news commentators as well as newspaper and radio newspeople...do play a daily part in how we, as average Americans, see events on the national as well as the international scene.

How do they influence?

Let’s take one example. Some months ago the national news media carried the big story that a father had filed a court case asking that the words “Under God” be deleted from the Pledge of Allegiance which his daughter was required to say in school.

Then began a nationwide debate on should or should not those words be included in the Pledge. The newcasts and commentators were heavy on the subject.

Later it developed that his daughter was living with her mother, who didn’t object. He was divorced and he was an activist in other matters.

Eventually the courts decided he didn’t have jurisdiction over his daughter and dismissed the case. But the debate.....triggered by the news media....still continues.

Take the war in Iraq....while some of the newscasters pay passing tribute to the excellent work that our soldiers are doing in Iraq to aid the people...rebuild schools, churches and homes......most lead off each day or night with the latest casualties, and almost always note that, as they say, “no weapons of mass destruction” have been found. Thus implying that the war was a big mistake.

Asked whether the world is better off without Saddam Hussein, they blithely agree and then go on to detail the costs of the war.

It is true that the national media have been instrumental first in turning the nation against war in Vietnam, remember. They have now turned the nation against the war in Iraq.

They have created the “hate Bush” campaign....perhaps innocently, but have done it non-the-less.

Go back to the election of 2000.....which group was it that made the big brewhaw about Florida. Which group was it that constantly displayed the hanging chads.....the dissension in the courts....and some cited, and still do, the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court as the one which elected our current President.

It is easy for the television as well as newspapers and radio to simply say “We’re just reporting the news.”

But....I must add.....with such reporting...and certainly with the claim that you reach 30 million American homes every night.....you then have to know that you are shaping the thoughts of millions in the process.

On the newspaper front....locally we have a newspaper that editorially seems to lean toward the activists at times, although they try a balanced approach on their editorial pages.

Not true of the Oregonian which also has a large readership in the area. Nightly they run at least one cartoon lampooning President Bush....sometimes two.

So.....where do you get your national news?

My suggestion is....listen, read.....then make certain you have gotten ALL the information before you make up your mind.

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.