The Second Thing I’ve Learned This Holiday…
Sunday, September 21, 2008Posted in: American Politics, Karen on hols
There is no such thing as balanced reporting in the US. Every damned channel seems to be biased towards one party or the other.
Fox News anchors taking sneaky hits at the Democrats, and CNN taking hits at the Republicans. And all of them operating under the illusion that they’re being fair and objective.
Whatever happened to balanced journalism?
And I thought the BBC were bad.
Sheesh.
By the way, TTG and I are leaving the States today, it’s been a grand old break from reality.
Anon Y. Mouse
September 21
10:14 am
Fox News has become shockingly unfair and unbalanced, pulling rather sharply towards the Republicans. They’ve done multiple specials in favor of Palin, and nothing for Biden.
The rest of the news organizations are decidedly more liberal, and their reporting reflects that.
Best news source lately? The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It’s hilarious and accurate at the same time.
Dorothy Mantooth
September 21
11:31 am
Thank you, Karen, for seeing the bias on both sides. It’s absolutely disgusting what journalism has become; rather than a straight reporting of facts, it’s become advocacy for one side or another. IMO the best thing to do is watch all the stations and suss out the truth that way. I watch Fox in the morning and CNN in the evening. I believe both have their virtues but they obviously both have their vices as well. (Plus, aside from that annoying blonde, the guys on Fox and Friends make me laugh. And the other girl–Karen? The one with the darker blonde hair–usually has something interesting to say.)
Lynne
September 21
3:15 pm
I’m skeptical of most news media, particularly Fox. They’re more interested in ratings — and advertising dollars — than they are in reporting objectively.
My main news sources are The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and online newspapers, particularly from overseas.
Tuscan Capo
September 21
3:23 pm
It really is this way. If you watch both FOX News and NBC its like getting broadcasts from two different planets. I miss the days of Cronkite and Brinkley, when the newscasters just gave the news and let the viewer decide what to make of it. As it is Ted Baxter would have been a more reliable source of information than the agenda-flingers on the air today, lol.
Katrina Strauss
September 21
4:22 pm
Yellow journalism abounds in U.S. broadcast and print media alike, and is especially colorful around election time. And yes, it’s yellow on both sides of the fence. In the beginning, Fox News aimed to balance out the left-leaning media with their “fair and balanced” approach, but somewhere along the way they went to the opposite right-wing extreme and are no more fair and balanced than any other network. I don’t know how much of it is a “personal agenda” on journalists’ parts versus the fact that they’re just so entrenched in their respective views, they honestly don’t realize they’re doing it. Whatever the case, I wish reporters would stop editorializing, simply present the news, and allow intelligent folks to form their own opinions.
AztecLady
September 21
5:28 pm
(Have a safe flight home, Karen)
There ain’t no such thing as actual journalism these days. It’s all PR for one group or the other *shrug*
Call me a cynic.
joanne
September 21
5:34 pm
Well you can thank Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush for the end of the Fairness Doctrine.
I think the 3 major broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC (not MSNBC) at least try to be more evenhanded. I said try – they’re not always successful, but compared to cable news networks they’re practically saintly. On cable? Forget it! Anything goes! If you’re politically to the right, FOX is the place to be. On the left? MSNBC is your amen chorus. CNN too, to a certain extent, but they’re not as blatant as the other 2. And if you think that tv broadcasts are biased, try turning on talk radio! The venom and outright lies flow fast and furious over the radio. It’s enough to make you want to live in a soundproof bunker!
Robin
September 21
6:10 pm
I totally disagree that media other than Fox is liberally slanted. CNN, for example, has Glenn Beck (I don’t know why I wrote “Black” Karen — total brain drain there), he of the very right-slanted views. People think the NY Times is extremely liberal, but remember that they sat on the story about the administration’s non-FISA approved domestic wiretapping FOR A YEAR at the request of the Bush administration (a story that would otherwise have been released right before the 2004 election!). A liberal media outlet? Hardly. CBS altered an interview with McCain as to cover a wrong answer with another answer from a different question — to cover a major gaffe about Iraq. Then they edited another interview to cover yet another error. Both ABC and the Washington Post suppressed a poll favorable to Obama when reporting on the popularity of each candidate.
All of these are well-known incidents; in fact, CBS was forced by backlash to publish the entire interviews with McCain on its website to address the objections, and both ABC News and the Post were forced to issue press releases with the omitted poll information.
I lost all faith that the US media was neutral, let alone liberal leaning during the 2000 election when the US media refused to cover the story in Florida of Katherine Harris’s purging of the voter rolls via a Republican-funded company that was eliminating many African Americans and others from the rosters who were perfectly qualified to vote but who were likely to vote Democrat. Note that in the article I linked to that the story was first covered by the British Observer (and uncovered by the BBC), NOT a US paper, even though the US press had every reason to know about the story. The BBC also uncovered a similar scandal in the 2004 election. I would not have heard anything about it at the time except I happened to be listening to a program on NPR in which an American journalist living in Britain was talking extensively about the issue and about how American journalists are too afraid to cover certain issues. And when you think about the corporate ownership of most mainstream media outlets in the US, is this any surprise?
If you want a real scare, check out the film, “Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections,” which has been playing recently on HBO. Eric Alterman’s book, What Liberal Media? The Truth about Bias and the News is eye-opening, too, asserting that the charges of liberalization are repeated so often that people accept them as true despite massive amounts of evidence to the contrary (and check out the research that went into Alterman’s book). And that the media has become so defensive about this, that they will do anything to avoid the perception of liberal bias, even if it’s not valid, knowing it’s ingrained in the pubic consciousness. I think we saw the legacy of that when journalists were publicly reminding and encouraging each other that they had a right to question Palin’s credentials after the McCain campaign began lambasting the media for its coverage of Palin’s backstory.
Wendy
September 21
7:49 pm
Agreed.
OMG, that child looks EVIL.
JulieLeto
September 21
11:23 pm
The scariest part of this post is, I’ve been turning to the BBC for my news lately, to get an unbiased reporting. Is that not good?
I also listen to a lot of National Public Radio. They are liberal slanted, but they at least TRY to be balanced.
joanne
September 21
11:52 pm
I’ve been watching BBC News for years. I don’t think anyone’s quite as biased as FOX & MSNBC, but BBC World News America is just as biased as the rest. Anyone watch their coverage of the political conventions?
Lynne
September 22
12:18 am
I watched the live feeds on Dish Network. No talking heads, no interruptions. IMO, the best unbiased straight-up news on TV is Lehrer.
karen stuck on plane in Canada
September 22
7:43 am
Robin I’ve been listening to a lot of the news channels and I certainly don’t get the impression that they are liberal. Far from it.
By the way, our plane had to divert to Canada after some poor soul had a heart attack. The time is now 2.40am and we should have landed in England an hour ago. Flying sucks big ones!
Throwmearope
September 22
7:35 pm
I agree w/ Lynne about Lehrer, although the quality of his silences can be very expressive.
Kristie(J)
September 22
11:46 pm
Karen! here you are in Canada and I can’t get a chance to meet you ๐
I hope you are being treated well *g*.
K. Z. Snow
September 23
4:10 am
I hate how special-interest oriented cable “news” channels have become. Political propaganda here, there, and everywhere. The most despicable thing about it, though, is any claim of being “fair and balanced” — the height of hypocrisy. I truly can’t stand watching these spinmeisters anymore. Where have all the true journalists gone?
I agree that NPR at least tries.
Shiloh Walker
September 23
4:29 am
Eek. We had a similar diversion the first time we flew to Alaska 12 years ago. ๐
Nope. Unbiased reporting doesn’t come easily.
Heh. That’s actually kind of what the baby bratlet looks like when she’s having one of her tantrums-which is often right now. She is redefining the terrible twos and I’ve developed ear drums of steel.
shirley
September 23
6:03 am
I’ve been watching PBS’ coverage for politics this year. Not just Lehrer, but all of their political coverage has thus far been balanced between for and against on both sides of the coin.
Ann Bruce
September 23
8:37 am
The “liberal” media is one of the greatest myths ever perpetrated. I blame Faux News. (Okay, I will admit to a slight bias against Bill O’Reilly and his so-called “No Spin Zone.”) CNN? NY Times? Please peruse the rash of articles and commentaries in the last few DAYS and tell me you still think they’re liberal. From where I stand, it looks like mainstream media is so afraid of being singled out by the right-wingers and labeled “liberal” that they let comedy new shows like The Daily Show do the real reporting.
Tuscan Capo
September 23
12:59 pm
That baby ain’t evil looking; she’s cute as a bug! Reminds me of a photo of one of my sisters at that age.
I’m neither conservative or liberal, but I have to say I really dislike Bill -the pill- O’Reilly. The man’s a comedy act in himself.
Ann Bruce
September 25
6:25 pm
good expession, fully agree, I support Obama but he is everywhere now
DS
September 27
8:29 pm
This is kind of funny because US reporting began with papers choosing up political parties and championing their side. Lots of small town newspapers were called things like the Democrat Register or the Republican Herald. I think the idea of “fair and balanced” was a blip on the radar screen.