>So an opinion has to be based on facts and nothing else? I was saying, that in this sort of discussion opinions has to be based on facts, otherwise its just bs, with all its inherent steamy aroma.
> >If I said it was my opinion that someone was an asshole, what kind of data >could I possibly use to back that up? 'Asshole' is a subjective term, just >like 'bias' so how would you quantify with data that someone is actually an >asshole? What if your idea of what an asshole is differs slightly than what >my definition would be? How could we possibly have any data that would >prove either way whether or not the person was indeed an asshole? > You started off with the statement that the media is biased. This is a factual statement. We asked for evidence to back that up, you offered more opinion, no data. so what are we supposed to think? There is a difference between facts and opinion. >I may have a more rigid definition of what I consider to be biased, where as >yours may less rigid, so its possible that what I consider to be biased, you >may not. now you're beginning to sound like lewis carrol's mad hatter. You just cannot change the definitions any way you want. > >It would be just as difficult, if not impossible, to prove, unequivocally, >that bias exists anywhere in any form, as it would be difficult to prove, >unequivocally that someone is an asshole. You're making a good start on it. (sorry could not resist). Media bias is a topic of much research in scientific journals, here are a few articles that give methods and techniques on measuring media bias: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.8.htm http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ674375&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ674375 http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=JijcQQI3A_oC&oi=fnd&pg=PP10&dq=media+bias+research&ots=nOn2ubunkB&sig=B-NO0kLKMSYb9GDfdBQv9m7CRAg#PPP1,M1 http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/499414 http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/bjos/2007/00000058/00000003/art00017 http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=media+bias+research&num=100&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&scoring=r&as_ylo=2003 Now you were saying that its impossible to show media bias. I guess these people mentioned in the above journal articles would be very surprised to hear that their work is impossible. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:277067 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
