Damned Liberal Media
Still bouncing around in the past to set the tone:
December 29, 2002
In that the concept of non-biased reporting is an ideal, it is important for the viewer or reader to be mindful that bias can only be suppressed, not eliminated. Intentionally or non, this suppressed bias can quite subtly be a powerful influence and should be troubling to any journalistic professional whose charge it is to present a balanced presentation of events.
I quote two leading paragraphs from stories in the Sunday Journal Sentinel. The first is from page 22a, entitled “Is ‘War on Terrorism’ part of Bush’s political game plan?”, by Ron Fournier of the AP.
An internal White House document outlining President Bush's re-election agenda starts with "War on terrorism (Con't)" and homeland security. It's the latest sign, critics say, that presidential advisers are seeking political gain from the Sept. 11 attacks.
The next appears on page 20a, written by Jennifer Loven, also of the AP, entitled “Sen. Clinton blames loss of jobless benefits on Bush, Republicans”.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton led Democrats in making political hay out of the loss of federal aid for hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers.
Note here the radical change in characterization of the two principals that can be made by transferring the phrase “critics say” from one article to the next. While either is arguable, nearly identical situations are being presented in one case as an assumption, and in the other case as fact.
It is wise for the reader to be aware of these differences, but it is the duty of journalists to avoid them. I know that you cannot edit AP articles, but you are responsible in their selection. The presentation of these articles is far short of fair reportage. Whether you are aware of this, don’t care, or bashing Hillary Clinton as a matter of policy isn’t important to me.
What is important to me is…. are you going to be a better newspaper?
posted by sequoit @ 10:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home