PBS NewsHour

Take a look at NewsHour's editorial guidelines:

• Do nothing I cannot defend.
• Cover, write, and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
• Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
• Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.
• Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
• Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
• Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.
• Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions.
• No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
• And finally, I am not in the entertainment business.

If you've gotten as sick of infotainment's fake news as I have, I suspect I now have your attention.

I want to bring PBS NewsHour to the attention of my readers. It may well be the last real news show I'm aware of. It first came to my attention during the 2008 presidential election, where they interviewed every candidate from both major parties, plus Bob Barr and Ralph Nader.

Now, I didn't see them all, but the interviews appeared to be, wonder of wonders, real interviews! We're not talking about the usual infotainment interviews, where two talking heads show up on the screen, talk over each other for three minutes, throw out as many slogans as possible, then vanish, having told us nothing. We're talking about substantive questions, which the candidate is given all the time they need to answer. It was so... refreshing! An actual news show! I don't know that I'd ever seen one before.

I don't get the chance to watch NewsHour as much as I'd like. It airs on PBS, Monday through Friday at 6:00. Recently, I found out that NewsHour offers podcasts. I'm sitting listening to them now, and I'm very pleased. Anyone interested in serious news, please, check this show out.