The Media: Equal Opportunity Bias?
August 21st, 2006 | by Omnipotent Poobah |With the possible exception of lawyers and politicians, some of the most distrusted and disliked people in this country are journalists. The right hates them because they “never report the good news” and the left hates them because they “didn’t ask the tough questions”. Meanwhile, assaults on press freedoms are getting more frequent and ever-stronger.
There is certainly much to dislike in the media. It’s sometimes peopled by knotheads and run by those who value their commitment to the stockholders more than their commitment to the citizenry or to journalistic ethics. However, one could reasonably argue they aren’t much different than any other business, or the government itself, in that respect. Think about it. When was the last time you got a superior product or great service at Walmart?
The caterwauling about the media is rooted in the ancient principle of blaming the messenger. When a politician is caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he rarely compliments the reporter who broke the story for her fine investigative work. He only does that when the investigation is of his opponent and is particularly viscous. That’s because Senator Cookiejar has his own facts - the ones that portray him as an angelic guardian of the public trust. Sure, he may have taken a bribe, but there were extenuating circumstances those nasty reporters didn’t write about and besides, it was only a little money and he’d been planning to donate every penny to an orphanage in Zambia.
Honest.
The left’s ire usually centers on not being tough enough. For them, journalists are the goats who didn’t “make” President Mumblemouth answer a question.
“Sir, clearly your policies in Iraq are not working. What is your response to your critics?”
“Well, I’m glad you asked that. Tax reform is the only way to address that issue. If we only give 15% more tax credits to large corporations, the problems in Iraq will go away.”
“Sir, a follow up question! What do you…”
“Sorry, I already answered that Helen. Next question? Let’s talk to that handsome Mr. Gannon from ButtChaps Weekly. Jeff, I really like the bald head. Can I rub it?”
The point here is that journalists do make mistakes, and much like everyone else, they do it frequently. The difference is that when they make mistakes, the whole world sees them. They generally don’t do this because they have some secret agenda. They do it because they make human mistakes.
For the most part, charges that the media is some kind of monolithic cabal ready to bring down whomever you want to side with are absurd. Journalists, as a group, are about the most disunited, disagreeing, contrarian bunch you could find. Trying to mold three or more of them into some kind of journalistic conspiracy would be about as easy as Sadamm trying to unify Iraq with lollipops and handshakes instead of poison gas and torture.
We should all question the media and any journalist worth his salt would encourage you to do so. The press spends plenty of time navel gazing and trying to figure out where the best balance of the news is, but they can’t do that unless we, the people, help them.
The next time you think they’ve made a mistake or gotten something wrong, point it out. That’s why most media outlets have “letters” sections and ombudsmen. Lodging your complaint helps keep them honest and on their toes, while making sure you get your message out.
Just one thing though…try not to make the same old knee-jerk reaction of blaming them whenever you disagree with a story. You owe it to them, and yourself, to look at your point of view as dispassionately as you wish they’d be.
It’s only fair and balanced.
Cross Posted at The Omnipotent Poobah Speaks!
2 Responses to “The Media: Equal Opportunity Bias?”
By manapp99 on Aug 21, 2006 | Reply
While in agreement that the statement journalist make mistakes like everbody else is, of course, true. When journalist make things up, it gets disturbing. The doctored photos by Reuters in the recent Mid East dust up is a great example. The Rather memo is perhaps a bit more disturbing because he so believed in the cause (and still does according to recent statements) that he let journalistic standards be trashed in order to make others see it as he did, as opposed to how it is. Then of course you have the Jason Blair debacle at the most trusted source of news, the NY times. This goes to all levels of journalism from a reporter making up stories to an editor that so wanted to have a black front page writer, he turned a blind eye. The recent Jason Leopold story concerning Rove at Truthout.com is just plain old unabashed bias causing poor cross referencing and believing what he wanted to believe. He also still stands by his story. Thank God for the internet. Or was it Al Gore?
By Omnipotent Poobah on Aug 21, 2006 | Reply
Manapp,
It’s true, there is no excuse for making things up, although this isn’t limited to journalism. Jason Blair was a shitheel and Dan Rather let himself get carried away in a very unseemly fashion. He hasn’t made it any better by sticking to the crazed story. The New York Times has stepped on itself too many times as well.
As for the Reuters debacle, the conventional wisdom seems to be that by cutting the photo editing staff to the bone to raise thier share price, Reuters didn’t leave enough people behind to actually vet what they were getting from their freelancers. This may be a cop out, but I’m willing to give the actual editors the benefit of the doubt. The parent company, not so much.
And as a word of caution, I’d never automatically believe much of anything I read from an obviously slanted source, whether it be Truthout, White House press releases, or the Swiftboaters. That’s why I don’t personally consider them to be journalists…although they are part of “the media”.