Some people perceive media coverage of President Donald Trump as negative, but stories that highlight the president’s inconsistencies are not biased in their reporting, according to Alisyn Camerota, a CNN anchor and commentator.
Camerota joined Bold TV to promote the paperback release of her novel, “Amanda Wakes Up: A Novel,” a fictional book that draws on Alisyn’s experiences as an anchor in the cable-news industry. The central protagonist, Amanda Gallo, is an anchor for FAIR News, a news network whose tagline, “True and Equal” is eerily similar to Fox News’s “Fair and Balanced” slogan. The novel is at times damning in its criticism of the news industry. There is one moment that is particularly striking, where Amanda confronts her co-anchor over her network’s coverage.
“FAIR News may be responsible for the downfall of journalism,” Amanda says. “And without journalism, you know where that leaves us? We’re supposed to be the watchdogs of government and politicians. Without us, well, that is the end of democracy. I mean, we might be ruining civilization.”
Camerota, who spent 16 years as a journalist at Fox News, said that she was inspired to write the book by shows that were committing what she considered to be journalistic malpractice.
“At the time that I wrote it, I was already struggling with some of the things I was seeing in cable news or some of the shows that masquerade as cable news,” Camerota said on Bold. “And they’re not following journalistic standards at times.”
When pushed by Carrie Sheffield about a Harvard poll that showed mainstream coverage of the president is overwhelmingly negative, Camerota responded:
“It’s hard for me to understand what a negative story is. If you are asking about the President’s consistency or asking about the President’s things that he is saying that don’t line up with facts, is that negative? Yes, I suppose that would be put into the negative basket, but that’s our job.”
Is there a potential for personal beliefs to seep into political reporting? Camerota admitted that every journalist has a bias, but that a key tenet of reporting is the ability to keep that bias in check. As she explained:
“You have to check your bias. You have to own your bias and you have to be aware of your bias. You have to cover your own blinders and still be able to do your job.”
Do you agree?
