A post-election panel including several political journalists and the chief of staff for Sen. Bob Casey met Tuesday evening to discuss how news sources covered the campaigns and the changing field of journalism.
Russ Eshleman, the director of the Collegian board, was the moderator at the event and asked the panel whether they considered people such as Glenn Beck to be journalists.
John Baer of the Philadelphia Daily News said he believes shows such as these are entertainment, not journalism.
“Neither of those networks do what journalism is supposed to do,” Baer said. “They either make you angry, or make you agree with them. What they do, is think for you. What they should be doing is trying to make you think.”
Nikole Killion, who works as a national correspondent for Hearst Television, said sources such as these pose the biggest challenge to the journalism profession.
She said it illustrates how journalism may be reverting back to partisan-journalism, in which it no longer provides an objective view of topics.
Killion said this has made it difficult for journalists who are still idealistic and want to tell both sides.
The panelists also discussed how the introduction of Twitter into journalism has changed the coverage of events, especially elections.
“I have Twitter on from the moment I get up,” said Lisa Lerer, a reporter for Bloomberg News. “You’re expected to tweet all the time and have it up all the time. People break news on Twitter.”
Lerer, who worked on Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, said it could also be tricky to deal with, but said it was part of the job.
Jim Brown, chief of staff for Casey, said the candidates had to choose whether or not to use Twitter for their campaigns.
Brown said the Casey campaign chose not to use it, because the tweets were typically boring and he said it was way too easy to make a mistake.
To email reporter: mjh5703@psu.edu
