Spin on News

[xwhirledx]

Here's an interesting article I read about bias in the media written by Newsday. I think it compliments what we've discussed in previous threads.
There's even a poll and an interesting breakdown of where "conservatives" and "liberals" get their news....


Putting a spin on the news
Objective reporting is getting harder to come by as media outlets increasingly lean to the left or right

BY NOEL HOLSTON
STAFF WRITER

August 15, 2004

In early July, George Stephanopoulos, the former Clinton administration adviser who anchors ABC's "This Week," was in Ohio trying to get some inkling of whether the state is going to wind up red or blue come Nov. 2. Several likely voters mentioned they had seen "Fahrenheit 9/11," Michael Moore's George W. Bush-whacking film.

"What was most striking to me is that when I asked them, 'Why did you go to see it?' they said, 'Because we wanted to get the facts,'" Stephanopoulos said. "And they said it very sincerely, very earnestly and forcefully. ... At least a few of them had a sense that if [information] is coming from the government, if it's coming from the established media, they must not be telling us something and we have to go to this alternative venue to get the facts. And I think that's a challenge for all of us [journalists]."

Stephanopoulos' colleague Ted Koppel, anchor of ABC's "Nightline," added that he is "concerned that on both sides of the political spectrum, that if what Americans feel they have to get is news with an attitude, what they're going to end up losing is some of the objectivity that traditionally people in our business have tried [to attain] at least. We don't always succeed, but we have tried."

News with a view

The ascendancy of "news" with an attitude - a spin, a bias - is undeniable. Whether it's Moore's determined effort to make Bush look dishonest and stupid; Brit Hume, Fox News Channel's chief Washington correspondent, looking as if he swigged sour milk when he mentions Democratic nominee John Kerry; Matt Drudge's right-thinking blogs; MSNBC's Keith Olbermann edging toward "Weekend Update" irreverence on his nightly news "Countdown," or the openly leftist

Air America radio network hammering at Republicans the way Rush Limbaugh got rich pounding Democrats, purveyors of news and information that play to their audience's prejudices - or at least their taste for amusement - are everywhere.

A survey published in June by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that while most Americans (58 percent) say they don't care if the news reflects their own viewpoint on politics and issues, the minority that does care (36 percent) is extremely picky about its choices of news outlets. The survey found, for instance, that Americans who identify themselves as liberal are twice as likely to listen to National Public Radio, while self-described conservatives are almost twice as likely to watch Fox News Channel.
Read on: http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/ny-fftv3927049aug15,0,7714973.story?vote13807287=1

[Sierra Mike]

I recall reading not too long ago--perhaps here?--that only 7% of the media polled reported they held something other than a liberal bias. :)

I do notice that the section of Newsday which ran this article is the entertainment section. Would be nice if they paid this particular issue some real attention, as opposed to stuffing in the banter section.

SM

[xwhirledx]

I recall reading not too long ago--perhaps here?--that only 7% of the media polled reported they held something other than a liberal bias. :)

I do notice that the section of Newsday which ran this article is the entertainment section. Would be nice if they paid this particular issue some real attention, as opposed to stuffing in the banter section.

SM
Where would you rather they run it? (I'm not saying you're wrong. I think "Entertainment" is slightly out of place ... however, I also realize that a lot of people watch TV news as entertainment). If they ran it in the news section, people will probably say the media is writing about themselves and calling it news when there are more important stuff such as the Iraq war to cover.

[ravital]

Now why do I feel like I could have bet money the survey would leave out an outlet like the Jim Lehrer Newshour? I would have won.

The comments by Kopel are exactly what I expected - I have no clue what planet the man lives on, but no, they never "have tried" to present anything objectively - maybe he has, once in a blue moon, but in general, they haven't. And if it were not so sad, it would be funny to hear Stephanopoulos both uphold the work of Michael Moore as "factual" and to refer to himself as "us journalists."

The survey is quite revealing however, in showing the irrelevance of CNN, NPR, and so many other outlets other than local TV news and newspapers. Not that I put much stock in either of these either.

[Sierra Mike]

Where would you rather they run it? (I'm not saying you're wrong. I think "Entertainment" is slightly out of place ... however, I also realize that a lot of people watch TV news as entertainment). If they ran it in the news section, people will probably say the media is writing about themselves and calling it news when there are more important stuff such as the Iraq war to cover.
National news would be a suitable place. Unless the MSM is about to knuckle under and finally recognize themselves as just "entertainment," something they're always loathe to do...you know, all that talk about chronicling events for historic record and the like.

SM

[ravital]

Unless the MSM is about to knuckle under and finally recognize themselves as just "entertainment," something they're always loathe to do...
SM
What I've always heard the MSM say about itself is that they are in the "infotainment" business, but you're correct, it's something that they don't admit to easily. When they do, it's with a big chip on their shoulder, it's as if they were arguing - "hey, we got to make a living too!"

[mikepd]

Television news lost all attempts at objectivity the day it became a line item on a balance sheet of a budget. I remember the days when the news division was a separate entity unto itself with almost unlimited funds to go anywhere in the world to report on events. Who could tell the political affiliation of Frank Blair, for example or many others of that era?

Then Rune Arledge took over as President of ABC news and things began to change. You had to have ratings to justify your existence, bias crept into the news shows and straight reporting of just the facts and let the viewer make decisions on the story went out the window.

Graphics became popular so all the TV news organizations had to have them. Just look at CNN as one example. No longer do you have someone make a speech with a round-table discussion of it afterwords. Instead you have this stupid crawler thing at the bottom of the screen giving instant analysis while the speaker is still talking.

I am convinced that these journalists think we are all little children who must be spoon fed information and told what to think and how.

The day is coming where they will find themselves up against a very long wall and the piper will be paid.

[ravital]

Who could tell the political affiliation of Frank Blair, for example or many others of that era?
I can still say that about Jim Lehrer, after watching him for 25 years I still don't have a clue about his politics, and that's how it should be. But I don't know how long that's going to last.

[ShinyTop]

The problem with technology and news is that they felt they had to find ways to use it all the time. The crawly thing keeping you up to date on an approaching hurricane is great or even an election while watching something else. But let me listen to the speech before you tell me what he said, what he meant, and what you think he said and meant.

Sports is no better. ESPN created the X Games so they could have more programming. Bunch of crap.

[xwhirledx]

It's always sad when I see young interns who work here come full of hope and ideals -- then watch as they are slowly eroded away. Heck, happened to me. I'm now in the "OK, I'll play your game to get ahead" pack. The "veterans" who are here don't even encourage the young to hold to their ideals. They always say something depressing like, "Oh you're still young... you'll learn soon enough." That's why I've heard sometimes that some of the most unbiased newspapers are college newspapers. The papers are owned by the schools, but it isn't quite as stained by capitalism as the corporate-owned papers are and the students running them are still "innocent" and full of ideals.

Indeed, what happened to real journalism? It got eaten up by the stocks-is-all-we-care-about popularity-contest monsters.