Pang Of Professionalism

ABC News President David Westin suffered a pang of professionalism in an address at the Harvard University's Institute of Politics last night.
Harvard Crimson:

"The more time we express our opinions, the less time we have to talk about the facts," Westin said. "Unfortunately, opinion is driving out facts too often in most of what we see on television today."

[...]

"It can be very entertaining to have two very spirited people discussing heath care in this country, but I for one would be better benefited by someone coming on and telling me exactly what the state of health care is before we talk about what ought to be done and telling me what my real options are," Westin said.

In addition to the danger of having too much opinion, news media face the danger of the blurring between fact and opinion, he said.

"If viewers see news people on different channels that look pretty much the same, on sets that look pretty much the same, and graphics that look pretty much the same, with some expressing opinion some of the time and some expressing facts, is it surprising that the audience believe that they're all expressing facts?" Westin asked.