Last night, I sat down to watch Channel 5 in New York, Fox News at 10. One of the stories was about the launch of The Wall Street Journal's new Greater New York section of the paper. The anchors and reporter all held up the edition and effused at how wonderful this edition was and all the news it contained. It mentioned how it competed with The New York Times. Oh, did I mention how wonderful this new section was, per each anchor's comments. This 3 minute plus "news piece" was then followed by the weather.
At no point did the news segment mention one very important fact; that both the Fox Affiliate and The Wall Street Journal are owned by the same organization, News Corporation. Sure there are lots of bloggers and other outlets to provide multiple points of view to a story. But, when two of the largest news organizations merge, they can incorrectly present news as something else. I can not tell you if the Fox news story was actually news or promotional advertising for The Wall Street Journal. It hurts both organizations "credibility" and "truthfulness". Fine to share a "story"; but next time, tell us all the facts; else, we may raise more of a red flag when multiple news outlets in a market converge and merge.
