NPR’s Eric Deggans Warns CNN Not to Veer Into Creating ‘False Equivalence’ Between Left- and Right-Wing Politics (Video)

thewrap.com:

https://t.co/Tk6WJUs7zwThe exit of CNN’s chief media correspondent, Stelter, and the cancellation of the 30-year-old “Reliable Sources,” which he hosted, has many who lean left worried about the expressed desire by the network’s new CEO and chairman, Chris Licht, to move away from opinion-based news programming and establish a more “neutral” voice.“I hope that what we’re not going to see CNN do is institute some sort of false equivalence, where the extremism of one party is balanced with the regular dysfunction of another party,” Deggans said. “We need to be free to call out when someone breaks the law, when someone breaks norms, when someone introduces prejudice and stereotypes into the public debate.

We need to feel free to call those things out without being accused of being unfair politically when what we’re really doing is trying to see things very clearly and root out the most negative anti-democratic impulses that have risen to the fore in a lot of our public debate.”But is it what the public wants?

The news business is a business, after all. It’s all about bringing in eyes (and therefore advertising dollars). Deggans isn’t certain that facts alone without context or insight tells the complete true story.“I’m concerned also that it will be hard to hold on to viewers if all you do is just give them facts.

They do need context. They do need free and fearless exploration. Even when you have to look hard at a political party or look hard at a political candidate and say this person is breaking the law or breaking norms,” he said.“Will CNN have the courage to do that?