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.
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. > In a sense there's a practical nature to the news media that would > make anything else unlikely if not impossible. For an individual > reporter or editor there's a finite amount of space per issue to > devote to news, and an infinite amount of material which could be > covered. The mere act of deciding what constitutes news-worthy > information is in and of itself an act of skewing the media, > particularly when you consider that a given editor remains at a given > paper for a period of time and their personal bias / opinions > determine which stories are published for a prolonged period of time. > When that editor retires (or is fired or dies) and someone else takes > over their job of editing that paper, then suddenly the news changes. > Most people likely don't notice the change, but it does happen. > > Although I imagine it's less noticeable with something like the Weekly > World News. :P "Gee Harry, I wonder if the vampires are dying out, > they never print any stories about them anymore. Last year it seemed > like there was a vampire article in almost every issue. Now it's just > transvestite zombie hookers from alpha-centauri." > > > 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 > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:162659 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=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
