>My gold standard of news is The News Hour. I watch it every day and >they do in depth reports on the top issues without any bias that I've >detected. I'm also a big Hardball fan and Mr. Matthews does of good >job of finding people to deliver or analyze the events of the day; >also unbiased.
New Hour puts me to sleep these days. They need a little more zip in their presentation. Matthews went over the edge covering the war in Iraq. He has reverted to the grating, obnoxious ass he was years ago. His show's ratings have been declining for months. I would not be surprised to see him get cancelled. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised to see the whole network get flushed at this point. They dropped behind CNN HN in the ratings. Ouch! >In comparison CNN seems less in-depth, but just as equal when it comes >to reporting the issues and challenging guests. They equally >challenge both sides and equally report both sides. FoxNews, on the >other hand, is biased. While they will include a Democrat on their >panels, the challenging is one sided. Fox News clearly has an agenda- tell the news from a perspective other news organizations are ignoring. It is a very simple proposition, and one that has scored big in the ratings. Is it biased? Sure, just like everything else. CNN, on the other hand, has attempted to maintain the broadcast network "objectivist" style of presentation. But it isn't any more objective than any of the broadcast networks. It's all just a show. What matters is how issues are presented. For instance, take the story in Florida about the new law that allows someone to defend themselves with deadly force in public if they are threatened with deadly force. The previous law required someone to make a reasonable attempt to flee it flight from danger was possible. Fox News (Brit Hume) led the story with something like- Is this a dangerous precedent for vigilante violence as opponents would suggest, or is it simply a recognition that a person should have the same right to self defense in public that they have in their own home? CNN (Aaron Brown) led the story with something like- is this just giving people the same rights in public they have in private, or will it lead to out of control vigilante justice? Don't quote me on the wording, but the core of the lead-in was this: Fox - Is it bad, or is it good? CNN - Is it good, or is it bad? The second argument in this kind of statement is generally perceived as the stronger one. We all probably learned the same thing in school- make your strongest argument last, that's what people remember. News writers know that and use it to frame arguments the way they want them presented. So the question is- which one of the two statements is biased? I would say both. One favors one side of the issue, and the other favors the other side of the issue. Reporters may not come out and tell you exactly which side of the argument they favor, but they use little tricks like that to push one side or the other. If they were just reporting the news, they would tell the story- the law was passed, it changed from X to Y. That's it. But no one does that anymore, now it's all about "analysis", which (as I think you have pointed out before) is really just opinion in disguise. Lately I can barely watch TV news. Maybe it's just burnout on my part, but the whole format seems to have gone to hell. I'd like to see some actual news. Why do we keep hearing about kids in Florida disappearing? Are there no other kids in the country going missing? Should we hear about them, too? What's the real point? And why did we spend two weeks on the news pretending we're all Catholic or something? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Purchase Studio MX from House of Fusion, a Macromedia Authorized Affiliate and support the CF community. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=50 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:155680 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
