I’ve mentioned before — I’m sure I have — that years ago, I used to do news for a small south Georgia radio station. Not that I was any good. But I did give it my best shot. That fact that I’m not doing that for a living today says something about just how good I was. Or wasn’t.
Still, I learned that you try to do the news straight. There’s news. And there’s opinion. Sports has a bit of both. Weather, too, to be honest. But news? Just the facts. Leave opinion out of it. And try to play it straight.
You don’t see that anymore. Not much, anyway.
But is it fair to criticize a news reporter for his story? Or her story? After all, they’re human. They have opinions. But, they shouldn’t let their opinions interfere with their jobs.
Do they? Yes, some do. Actually, a lot do. It’s rare that reporters don’t. At least, on the national level.
But is the criticism fair? If a reporter files a story on a topic about which you have strong feelings, are you going to say the reporter is playing it straight if the reports seems to support your opinion? Or will you say the reporter is biased if the story contradicts your opinion?
Is the bias in the eye of the beholder?
I believe that sometimes it is. But, I also believe that often, the reporter isn’t reporting, but editorializing.
Let’s conduct a little experiment, shall we?
Look at my recent post on a DNC-sponsored rally in Columbus, Georgia. [EDIT: Yes, it was uploaded as “private.” My bad. It’s public now.] The rally was organized by a DNC-sponsored group that calls itself a grassroots organization. Yeah, I wrote my opinion of that earlier.
But, take three minutes and look at my report.
Ignore the poor quality of the video and the audio. I have an old, hand-held JVC camcorder, not some fancy camera like the local TV stations have. And, I have that south Georgia accent. Plus, built-in microphone on an overtaxed MacBook.
The quality of the audio and video aside, look at the content. Did I report it straight? Heck, compare it against a report I did on a July 4th Tea Party rally. Did I favor one side or the other?
If you’ve read anything I’ve written, you may have picked up how I personally feel. But, looking just at the reports, did I report it fairly? Was it balanced?
If I didn’t report it straight, then it shows just how hard it is to keep personal bias out. Keep that in mind when you watch a real reporter. (Here’s an example of what I see as a fairly balanced report from an actual reporter.)
But… if I did report it straight, that brings up the question: why can’t others do it, if some old, fat, gray-haired loudmouth white guy (me, not Ted Kennedy) can?
Then again, does it matter? At least, does it matter whether or not I report something fair and balanced? I mean, I’m a blogger. And if you read this blog for news, then something is seriously wrong with you. Or something is seriously wrong with the state of traditional news reporting. One or the other.
“But, take three minutes and look at my report.”
It’s a private video, can’t watch it.
[Yes, I did teh stoopid. I accidentally uploaded it as private.
Fixed it. Sorry. – B]
It mattered when news readers strived to report the news
instead of being the news or ‘Defenders of the Sacred O’.
I saw a clip of a pMSNBC interview of James Taranto . In the first 30 seconds, the news reader-ette yaps that her networks micro audience is a ‘majority of the American people’. at 1:30, she barks that it isn’t fair for Taranto to call Obama’s policies “much gentler policies toward terrorists”.
The hell it isn’t.
If she thinks it is unfair, she ought to hire a journalist to prove it.
Good luck finding one at NBC.
Couldn’t watch it. It said, “This is a private video. If you have been sent this video, please make sure you accept the sender’s friend request.”
Clicking to the youtube link also gave me something about it being “private.”
I was able to watch the July 4th video and only thought there might be juuuuust the tiniest hint of bias. But not bad at all:)
[Yes, I accidentally uploaded it as private.
Fixed it. Sorry. – B]
Since the morons who strive to be journalism “professionals” all idolize Walter Cronkite, the most biased man ever to report the “news”, no it’s impossible to ever hear a non-biased story.
Hell, Cronkite was the original Harry Reid, proclaiming “the war is lost” as our brave soldiers were fighting to win it.
I don’t know. Maybe, just maybe if the truth could look at all the good that’s been done since it died, it would say it was all worth it.
There are few national NEWS outlets these days, The vast majority are commentators . A person must watch several so-called newscasts and try to find the truth in between the lines. The alphabet networks are a joke, The Onion has more real news than they do.
Saddly, Harvey’s news fakery seems to be closer to the real story than most news articles.
HEIL OBAMA
Todays ‘journalists’ went to the the Walter Winchell School of Journalism. Gossip and Slander as news, so long as they can couch it in the cloak of ‘absence of malice’. News readers are just that, LiterateMonkeys that they are; and ‘analysts’ are paid to opinionate, so objectivity is out the window. One must take in all forms of ‘journalism’ with a critical mind. ‘Cept IMAO, natch. đ
It’s easy to separate news from opinion. Key words and phrases:
“…might…”
“…may…”
“…could…”
“Studies show…”
“Sometimes…”
As soon as you hit one of these, you are into opinion.
Sadly, it usually doesn’t take long to get there.
When they came up with the phrase âHunter Gatherersâ on PBS (I mean, where else would you come up with a totally gay phrase like that?) they had to adopt a state for those among us who are weenies too weenieous to be Hunters so PBS and NPR came up with Gatherers. I donât EVER want to be a âGathererâ!!! What exactly do âGathererâs gather? Do the Hunters go like âhey Poindexter, go out and gather some wood for the fire while I go and hunt, you sissy!â And then they give the Gatherer a nuclear wedgie before romancing the little woman and taking off with the other manly men for The Hunt?
There is no media bias!! None at all. Those cBS Bush memos, truth I tell ya. pMSNBC, CheapBS, Clinton News Network, New York Slimrs, Atlanta Constipation and Urinal, all bastions of Pravda, i mean truth. Comrade..
Great job, Basil and PJTV! That was excellent straight reporting, and my BS meter didn’t budge. When I watch TV news or read certain newspapers, my BS meter usually gets quite a workout.
Remember that reporters don’t decide what is printed.
On TV they have a more mixed role. Sometimes they have control and sometimes they don’t. Live field reports often show a reporters bias, but normally what they read in the studio is up to their boss. And the boss decides what stories are aired.
The cult of personality in news seems to have come out of radio. Murrow and Cronkite are best known. Why anyone ever actually thought they were fountains of truth is beyond me.
Media presents stories not gospels. Listen, read, decide for yourself.
I agree that bias and outright lies are routine. Media news cannot be separated from entertainment now. The reporters, as a group, are prettier than the movie actors. And as concerned about facts as actors are about whether Prince Hamlet ever lived.
I’ve seen some early clips that made Dan Rather sound like an old conservative fuddy duddy. What grates me and seems so dangerous is the bias is often blatant and is obviously an effort to influence elections and legislation. I still hear statements made about such things as the Plame/Yellow Cake Affair that have been proven to be false “reported” after all these years that just show bias, ignorance or plain old laziness. The MSN may hasten it’s destruction when too many try to charge for internet content, and most young people couldn’t care less about that.
As for you, well we need our citizen soldiers and more and more we will need our citizen reporters. Keep that camera handy and technology will catch up to our needs. Heck, before long we will just hack into the government spycams to catch your latest report.