The Thin Line between Journalism and Entertainment

This post was originally going to discuss the recent recent retraction of a This American Life, and how it affected our class discussion of the Mike Daisy's performance. However, Mr. O'Conner beat me to the punch, and posted is own on our American Studies blog, here.
So, in order to keep things different, I wanted to talk about the difference between entertainment and journalism, or more importantly, when we should call into question the differences.

As we saw in the incident with Mike Daisy's performance, he altered and changed facts about his experiences, which in an effort to provide a more compelling story. Only within the confines of theater and entertainment would most people consider this an OK practice. Bloomberg News reports Daisy's own opinion of merging fact with fiction, “’This American Life’ is essentially a journalistic ­- not a theatrical ­- enterprise, and as such it operates under a different set of rules and expectations,” Daisey wrote. “For this reason, I regret that I allowed ’This American Life’ to air an excerpt from my monologue. What I do is not journalism.”

Yet, even with Daisy's statement, I am left with doubts of his intentions. In the picture to the right, Daisy's desk has a shocking similarity to that of a news anchor's desk. This may just be me looking to far into it, but perhaps we are seeing an under-layer of journalism being hid in all works of fiction. And maybe even the other way around.


It is common knowledge that even the most reputable news sites and shows sometimes exaggerate or give leading statements that hyperbolize and issue. Even Don Dellilo in his book  White Noise talks about the phenomenon of news broadcasts giving reports without actual information. In the book, before being called The Airborne Toxic Event, the news were labeling the cloud as first a "feathery plume" and then a "black billowing cloud." Both terms seem ominous, and probably used to incite certain emotions from viewers and listeners. Maybe Delillo was the first to catch on to the blurred lines between storytelling and news, entertainment and journalism.


 What do you think? Is this barrier between fact and fiction really this frail? Has it always been so?