Student Publications
University of Houston
151C Communications Bldg
Houston, TX 77204-4015
713.743.5350

©1991-2007
Student Publications,
All rights reserved.

Last modified:

Contact:
ktruitt@uh.edu

Opinion

Journalism has sold its integrity for ratings

Cheycara Latimer 
Opinion Columnist

As college students, we are taught to engage in conversations that will help us improve our critical thinking, which will then help us formulate our own opinions. Along with these lessons of intellectual conversations, we are also taught to uphold a certain level of professionalism in our prospective career fields, especially if the career field is in a public setting.

But when two professionals engage in conversation that becomes so heated and so intense it results in a publicly viewed (national and international) debate, what you end up with is a peculiar episode of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor with host Bill O'Reilly and guest Geraldo Rivera.

According to an MSNBC article, a story about a drunken driver charged with manslaughter for killing two teenage girls is what sparked this heated debate. 

However, the debate between Rivera and O'Reilly was not about the person being drunk or driving under the influence --unfortunately accidents and deaths caused from drunken driving occur frequently. It was about illegal immigration, a topic that has recently been added to that unwritten -- but highly spoken of -- list of things people should not talk about, no matter who and where they are. 

The driver in question is a Mexican immigrant who has been in the United States for seven years. He has a previous record for drunken driving and allegedly told authorities that he is in this country illegally. 

Throughout the program, Rivera and O'Reilly shouted at each other -- O'Reilly shouted that the man should be deported and that the mayor and public officials of Virginia Beach should have reported him after the first offense. Rivera shouted back that it doesn't matter what race the man was or where he was from. He went on to say that O'Reilly was just trying to make a cheap political point.

During this episode, the public witnessed something that will be frequently talked about and more than likely become a "something not to do" lesson in communication classes across the country.

But Rivera and O'Reilly are not strangers to controversy and sensationalist journalism.

Rivera suffered a broken nose in 1988 during an episode of his show Geraldo because of an altercation between racist skinheads, anti-racist skinheads, black activists and Jewish activists. 

O'Reilly may not have been in a physical fight, but he has had his share of controversy during his career. Media Matters for America has frequently made him the subject of its online reports, in which the organization criticizes O'Reilly for being partisan and utilizing selective coverage.

Whether Rivera and O'Reilly have known each other and have been in the business for years, the question of the hour is was it really necessary to engage in a public shouting match? And, at the same time, how professional is it for O'Reilly and Rivera to behave in such a manner? Granted, under the First Amendment, we're all entitled to our opinions and have every right to defend them wholeheartedly. 

In watching the broadcast, though, it seemed as if both men were trying to force the other one to conform to what he thought was right, which in itself isn't right. 

Apparently, we have gone back to the days of yellow journalism and the many feuds between William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. 

In the world of journalism and mass communication, the news programs have forgotten that journalism is not for personal gain but for reporting the facts and bringing the people the news. There no longer seems to be any journalistic integrity.

Perhaps it went out the door with the ability to report and discuss the facts. It could be said that their "argument" was just a publicity stunt; that it could have been staged to perhaps increase ratings.

As professionals and public figures, we should not allow ourselves to overstep a boundary that we would not normally step outside of, nor should we conduct ourselves inappropriately. 

Whether it was to increase ratings or a legitimate disagreement, our opinion columns, radio broadcasts and cable news program are supposed to give us alternative viewpoints about the issues being presented. We don't always have to agree, nor are we forced to agree with another person's opinion. 

Latimer, a creative writing post-baccalaureate student, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu