> Good write up Isaac. > The bias you speak of is almost impossible to get rid of. > As such, I think most Americans are willing to accept it. > The idea that one newspaper may be more prone to report > news with a positive conservative bent, than another > paper, is acceptable to the degree that there is always > another paper that is bent in the other direction.
I tend to agree with that... although there are some sub-sets of thought that are very rare in the available media... that is... it's not just a left-to-right, there are probably well more than 3 dimensions that can be moved through when it comes to reporting "the news". > Here's the problem. Recently bias has begun to creep into > the reports themselves. This is unacceptable. For example, > two different newspapers could publish the exact same story, > but the structure, the wording, etc. could be shuffled in > such a way to attempt to lure readers to a particular > conclusion. No where has this been more noticeable than > in the recent Supreme Court brouhaha. The NY Times > reported on the conservative republicans "assault" on > the judiciary, whereas conservative outlets have been > reporting on the conservative republicans attempt to > reign in a run-away judiciary. I'm not necessarily convinced this is such a recent thing... I remember hearing someone say that Walter Cronkite had been intrumental in forming the modern concept of journalistic ethics which values (or claims to value) unbiased representation. When I heard it initially I thought "Really? that's only since what, the 50's?" knowing that "news of the day" has been around since some time before the turn of the century if I remember correctly. Then I realized that my thinking that journalistic integrity had always been perceived as a need to remain unbiased (since the beginning of "news") was likely just a careless assumption because I'd never really studdied the history of "news". So then I read a bio on the guy for whom the term "yellow journalism" was coined and I realized that it's really just been a slow progression to try and reach a place where information reaches the people it genuinely effects and does so in a manner that's reasonably unbiased (which also ties into the nature of democracy). It's a slow and tortruruous process if history is any indication, propaganda having been practiced for centuries before it was ever formalized (see Lincoln's presidential-election debates as an example), and it's a process we're still hip-deep in apparently. Maybe at some point it will become a reality, but I wouldn't expect to see it happen real soon. (Or maybe we'll just continue to throw mud at each other forever.) Not that I necessarilly think I would be any better at it mind you... s. isaac dealey 954.522.6080 new epoch : isn't it time for a change? add features without fixtures with the onTap open source framework http://www.fusiontap.com http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/author/4806Dealey.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Purchase Contribute 3 from House of Fusion, a Macromedia Authorized Affiliate and support the CF community. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=53 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:162662 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
