Lifestyle > Train of Thought
Fake News
nibs:
Woodrow:
Sorry, I've got things to do during the day and can't reply on your schedule.
sure. just try not to let it happen again.
Bias is a very, very insidious thing, and it's not always what you report, but how you frame the story. Is mainstream media biased? I can't imagine how you can argue it's not. There must be some reason approximately half the country feels compelled to flock to "alternative" news sources such as blogs, talk radio, and Fox News in ever increasing numbers.
liberals are also finding new outlets, such as air america radio (which is steadily expanding), blogs as well and networks like the sundance channel which loves airing anti-bush regime documentaries. as does the trio network before they folded. i think this is problematic as blogs and talk radio are less accurate and less honest that broadcast news or cable news.
I guess I'll reply to your list of reporters with one of my own.
Dan Rather
Peter Jennings
Matt Lauer
Hugh Downs
John Roberts
Diane Sawyer
George Stephanopoulos
Keith Olbermann
Anderson Cooper
Who's list is more well known?
other than olberman and cooper, you're list is primarily broadcast networks. my list was primarly cable networks. the broadcast programming gets much higher viewership in the evenings and on sundays; but we are comparing these spikes to all day formats.
Remember when Al Gore told Wolf Blitzer that he invented the internet and Wolf Bllitzer just noded? That is conservative in your view?
a) whether or not al gore invented the internet isn't a huge political issue. it's him trying to take credit for a senate committee he was on that supported to funding of the development of darpa net iirc. was blitzer even prepped with the facts on that in order to respond? poor preparation, or sloppy journalism (as you pointed out) isn't really bias.
You seem to watch a lot of TV news so you should know that what the news channels attempt to do is take somebody from the far left and have them argue with an individual from the far right. I guess thats conservative?
it's not every show that does that. alot of shows are simply one personality either arguing or agreeing with their guests.
I'm gonna leave you with a quotes from people on your "conservative" list.
you have some interesting quotes there. one thing i would point out is that lots of softball questions appear to be tough, but if the interviewer doesn't follow up or continue to press the issue it becomes a moot point.
i agree with you that matthews isn't particularly biased, and i shouldn't have included him in the initial list. he tries to be a straight shooter, as does olberman.
Here Brian Williams blames the US for 9/11
"I was going to say we'd have to go back to the days of the Empire, and that gives the U.S. obvious military swagger. Does it give them any kind of moral courage above anyone else and anyone's world, and isn't that world view part of what got the United States in trouble September 11th
neo cons refer to the u.s. as an empire. osama bin laden states that al qaeda is opposed to the u.s. because of the troop presence in saudia arabia. and to a lesser note the support of israel. i wouldn't call that biased, and without the full context it's hard to say if it was a tough question or a softball question. this is the guy that has had rush as a guest numerous times and admits to being a rush fan.
Bob Scheiffer's questions at the presidential debates:
the debate questions were basically softball questions dressed up to look difficult, because the moderator didn't really challenge the responses of the candidates to any great extent.
scheiffer was just criticized by liberals for slurping the ss privatization plan and "misrepresenting" the chilean system while not exposing it's flaws. the fact that this guy get criticizes from the left seems to indicate that he isn't biased that way. it was softball questions all around during the debates:
what about this question:
--- Quote ---senator kerry, you have just said you will not cut social security benefits. alan grenspan, the chairman of the federal reserve, says there is no way that social security can pay retiree's what we have promised them unless we recalibrate. what he is suggesting: that we are going to have to cut benefits or raise the retirement age we may have to take some other reform. but if you've just said you've promised no changes; does that mean you're just going to leave this as a problem, another problem for our children to solve?
--- End quote ---
mother jones is liberal, here are their concerns about schieffer:
The worst of the bunch might be Bob Schieffer, who will moderate the third debate on foreign policy. Schieffer, it should be noted, struck up a golfing friendship with George W. Bush during the 1990s. Last year, the "Face the Nation" host told Howard Kurtz, "It's always difficult to cover someone you know personally." Indeed, it must be. This is the same Bob Schieffer who believed that the media had asked "tough questions" during the run-up to the Iraq war. The same Bob Schieffer who, after the 2000 debates, opined, "Clearly tonight, if anyone gained from this debate it was George Bush—he seemed to have as much of a grasp of the issues [as Gore]." The same Bob Schieffer who couldn't for the life of him figure out why Bush would visit the infamously racist Bob Jones University during the 2000 campaign, saying: "The notion that Bush is a Bible-thumping conservative Republican of that ilk is something that's sort of hard to believe." This is not to call Schieffer a partisan hack; just don't expect him to bring a critical persona to the debates.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2004/08/08_403.html
media matters also did a piece on him. so i think it's fair to say that he's not biased towards the left.
i think the main issue here is that only democrat and republican strategists and the fox news channel are ever clear down the line on any issues. even neo-cons like william kristol have publicly criticized rumsfeld's (and bush's) handling of the war. so it's not surprising that you can pull a quote here or there from a guy. and let's remember, tom brokaw supported the iraq war (but expressed concerns about the execution of the war, as william kristol has). surely that isn't the liberal position; but i'm not going to use that as evidence of brokaw's conservative leanings.
and more importantly, conservative personalities have been dominating the cable news media. many liberals criticize clinton and his policies. clinton is a moderate and moving farther towards the right. and there are very few in the media on either cable or broadcast news or major print that are to the left of clinton.
so let's clarify this argument. i maintain that there is no significant liberal bias especially in cable news. there's actually a conservative leaning in cable news.
even broadcast news, even print media like the new york times or washington post; it's rare to find content "more liberal than clinton".
and fox is not an honest media outlet.
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