The Truth About Tv News Westin Analysis

So called “opinion journalism” has become a growing issue in today’s media. The concern is that the news channels are not always reporting facts to their viewers, but often times fact less opinions. In his article “The Truth about TV News”, Westin makes a highly effective argument as to how news channels are reporting opinions rather than cold, hard facts. His persuading argument lists supporting and personal experience. The experience comes from Westin’s time as ABC president has given him a valuable insight into both the industry of reporting and how opinion journalism has become a growing issue. Westin uses his knowledge to support his claim: opinion journalism is bad and needs to be put to rest as fast as possible. Westin’s extremely well thought out article leaves with the reader with no questions and builds their understating with examples from his own personal experience. His examples include shows aired by ABC such as: Nightline. Much controversy came when Nightline tried to air a tribute episode to fallen soldiers. Many said the network, ABC, was trying to gain publicity and viewers, but Westin argued that ABC has no hidden motives in airing the episode. He also argues that the criticism came from other networks feeding opinions to their viewers. From here, the reader can begin to understand that Westin feels people are loosing

His logic allows the reader to think and formulate their own opinions using the questions that Westin has asked. Consistently Westin asks, “what is truth”, “shouldn’t we…”, and “what are the options”. These simple questions give the reader a guided route to come to the conclusion that opinion journalism is bad. Westin also uses logic to refute any opposition to his claim. By adding the negatives of TV and news at the start of the article he leaves no room for opposition within it. Stating the negatives begins to draw the reader in even more and gives them more reason to keep