Broken news

An ad for HARDTalk, an interview show on the BBC, is set in the African wilderness, where lions, cheetahs and rhinos spar as angry tribal music plays on the soundtrack. Nothing could be more appropriate: the premise behind HARDTalk is that its host, Stephen Sackur, departs from a typical interview’s restrained format to harass guests with questions in search of the truth. Don’t let CNN’s Wolf Blitzer fool you; Mr. Sackur is the only wild animal on cable news.

Each episode of HARDTalk is a half-hour taped interrogation where nothing is off limits and anyone who dares to evade a question is chased down and beaten (with words, of course).

Previous guests range from world leaders like Jimmy Carter to the Dalai Lama — and even His Holiness wasn’t given an easy ride. Public figures previously spoiled by accommodating interviews approach Mr. Sackur’s show with caution.

When the show asked US President George W. Bush for an interview, he declined, citing “scheduling conflicts.”

There’s no question then that HARDTalk is at the pinnacle of cable news. Host Sackur is a badass in a world dominated by Katie Courics. For holding world leaders accountable for their actions, Sackur deserves a Nobel Prize. News shouldn’t be delivered any other way — but most of the time, it is.

After leaving CNN on all day, you discover that there’s a museum in Idaho that explores the history of commemorative stamps from past US elections, and that a couple in India have somehow produced a batch of septuplets (and how). Opportunities to grill the world’s most powerful people are squandered with easy questions and a taste for evasive answers.

Meanwhile, CNN gives us up-to-the-minute reports on Youssif, a five-year-old Iraqi burn victim who was doused in gasoline last year. His improving health is today’s top story. Although heartwarming, his road to recovery eclipses any meaningful discussion on the war itself. And then suddenly, “BREAKING NEWS” flashes onto the screen and regular programming is suspended. Paris Hilton has just been released from jail. And when they cut to commercial break, the producers have no qualms about airing the tagline, “The News That Matters.”

Today’s broken news programs are just begging to be laughed at, which explains the recent success of The Colbert Report, a satirical talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert. Here, Colbert plays the role of an obnoxious, conservative “pundit,” a caricature of Fox News’s favorite son, Bill O’Reilly. The Daily Show, hosted by Jon Stewart, is another one. It gives disillusioned news junkies an alternative source of news while parodying news segments on CNN.

To the credit of CNN, they syndicate The Daily Show themselves. But self-deprecation and a sense of humor can’t make up for fluffy journalism. The major news networks have drifted away from their promise to deliver us the real news. More and more, the distinctions between CNN and the Hallmark Channel become less apparent.

The worst part is that a frivolous media means good news for the bad guys. In an ideal world, the media should give the public the power to hold their leaders accountable, or at least know what’s going on. The free press wasn’t freed just so that it could “sell out.” So for every moment spent on frivolous topics, injustice occurs. And for every interviewer who sells out, infamous world leaders are spared from the public eye.

In Soviet Russia, the free press was phased out in favor of the state-run media. In true Orwellian fashion, the government controlled what the people knew and kept them uninformed. Each of Stalin’s interviews was conducted by state reporters who sought to appease the dictator, and in doing so, silence the truth. Today, we have set that upon ourselves by subscribing to Katie Couric and that little Iraqi boy, Youssif.

But I refuse to live under self-imposed totalitarianism. That’s why I watch HARDTalk with Stephen Sackur every night at 10:30 p.m. on the BBC.

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For comments and suggestions feel free to e-mail me at levistel@gmail.com.