by Walter Pfau.
Depending on who you ask, you’ll get different answers to the question, “Can Americans tell the difference between news and opinion?” Fox News host Sean Hannity believes they can. “We have to give some credit to the American people, that they are somewhat intelligent,” Hannity said, “and that they know the difference between an opinion show and a news show.”
Former CNN reporter and anchor Frank Sesno, who now runs George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, told the Washington Post it’s not that simple.
“One of the dangers is thinking that people know the difference between the editorial page and the front page, between a commentator or pundit commenting on something alongside a reporter who’s supposed to be providing facts. In this environment, when you have news, talking points and opinions all colliding, it can be really disorienting to the audience.”
–Frank Sesno
These differing responses show that the line between news and opinion is not solid, which may create confusion and cast doubt about the media in general, leading to a lack of public trust.
A study published in May 2017 by the Media Insight Project, an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that one possible explanation for an overall decline in trust in the media is that parts of it, especially cable television, blur the distinction between opinion and news. Thirty-two percent of Americans find it very or somewhat difficult to tell the difference between news and opinion.
However, opinion shows attract viewers. According to Forbes, in November 2017 Hannity’s primetime opinion show, Hannity, brought in 3.2 million viewers to Fox News, making it the most-watched cable news show. A recent ratings report cited February 2018 as Hannity’s most-watched month since last fall, and Fox News’ 194th consecutive month as the nation’s most-watched cable news network.
But viewers aren’t explicitly told Hannity’s program is an opinion show, and its website offers no hints about the content of his program, either. On the air, Hannity often interviews public figures. In 2011, he interviewed Donald Trump about the “birther movement,” questioning the validity of then-President Obama’s birth certificate. It’s reasonable to assume that some viewers might not realize they’re watching an opinion show when the host is interviewing a potential presidential candidate.
The other major cable news outlets aren’t any better at keeping opinion out of the news. MSNBC, seen as the most liberal of the cable news outlets, chose to have opinion pundit Rachel Maddow join Brian Williams, a network news anchor, for the channel’s coverage of the 2016 election night. More recently, on his CNN news program “Anderson Cooper 360,” Cooper aired an emotional segment after President Trump reportedly called Haiti a “shithole country,” saying the Haitian people have a dignity Trump could learn from.
Neither of these channels explicitly states when an opinion show or segment is on air; they expect viewers to know this without any labels. It’s also worth noting that both CNN and MSNBC do not flag their respective pundits’ websites with an “opinion” title either.
This blurring of opinion and news is a relatively recent phenomenon. Television reporters and anchors used to rarely give their opinion on the news. It shook the nation when Walter Cronkite gave the American people his opinion that the war in Vietnam could not be won. Cronkite was viewed as the most trusted man in America, and that might be because he never let his opinion get in the way of his responsibilities as a journalist.
As traditional print journalism outlets have rushed into the online realm, they too have had issues separating news from opinion. The New York Times’ public editor, Clark Hoyt, conceded in 2008 that opinion scattered throughout the news pages risks confusing readers. The Times did try to help readers recognize when they are reading something that isn’t straight news, but even Hoyt said he couldn’t tell the difference between “opinion” and “point of view.” Letting reporters write columns, he wrote, “is taking a big risk with the trust of readers already inclined to believe that the news media, including The Times, are biased.”
The Times isn’t the only publication difficult to decipher. A study by the Duke Reporters’ Lab found that out of 49 local and national publications surveyed, none reliably labeled content in all sections of their websites. Less than half labeled article types at least once. Of the 20 organizations that did use labels. The Washington Post had the most extensive system, labeling “opinion,” “analysis,” and “perspective,” which it defines on its site as “discussion of news topics with a point of view.”
“People do get confused and it’ s particularly challenging these days when we’re publishing on so many different platforms,” said Washington Post editor Marty Baron in announcing the labeling system. “It’s important that we take steps to make sure that people understand what [an article] is, with some sort of label that makes sense.”
The findings of the Duke Reporters’ Lab study make clear that news organizations can do much more to label content in an effort to rebuild public trust. As Poynter’s Rebecca Iannucci points out, “Labels help readers distinguish between news and opinion so they better understand different forms of journalism and can assess allegations of bias.”
A hard look at print and cable news outlets shows the question may be turning from “Can Americans tell the difference between news and opinion?” to “Are news outlets doing enough (or anything) to differentiate between news and opinion?” In a time where public trust in the news media is at stake, it is important for news organizations to distinguish news from opinion and answer these questions with a resounding “yes.”
Walter Pfau is a student at the University of Montana’s School of Journalism. He grew up as the oldest brother of two and spent most of his childhood between Montana, California, Virginia, and Massachusetts as his family followed his father’s military career. Walter enlisted into the U.S. Army and was stationed in Ft. Lewis, Washington, for three and a half years. After finishing his active duty service, Walter moved back to his hometown of Missoula, Montana.
