"There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle."
ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. That comment by Bill Moyer? We should truly look at most media, and can see very quickly that it is not independent or even diverse. Most media has a very distinct agenda.
Agenda setting within the media is often relative to your own bias. The more extreme you lean on an issue, the more you view coverage as different from your on leanings. Research has prooven that over and over again.
I am sorry Justin, but when you can take like events, and have them for example on opposite sides of the political spectrum, and then do an indepth study of who comments, and how they comment, then it is easy to see a very strong and direct bias.
The bias is from those who own, manage, and write the articles for the different media, whether it is radio, television, or newspaper.
People who cry about media bias are usually the ones that have some kind of extreme or semi-extreme leaning in the first place. The rest of us are just smarter.
Just to add one thing to Bill Moyers quote. Responsible media. By that I mean not to run garbage stories like the non-stop coverage on Anna Nicole Smith death with as many lurid details. At best it was a sad-non story.
Justin - I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with Mr. Moyers last week at a college in NYC. He has a new series on PBS, Bill Moyers' Journal, starting next Wednesday, April 25th at 9pm, and then continuing on Friday evenings. One may not fully agree with Mr. Moyers' point of view, but he definitely provides good journalism. He mentioned that this series cost a lot of money, most of it going to research hours, and that there is not one statement made by him on the program and is not factual and can't be backed up.
This, he made the point, is not true of much of the media. They are constantly pressured to get many stories out a day, on a limited budget. So it is no wonder that we get meaningless bits and pieces, interviews with pundits espousing their own opinions rather than solid fact - the media just doesn't want to spend the time and money to do the real research that is required for legitimate investigative reporting (which IS unbiased by its very nature).
I often delay forming an opinion on something until lI can research it for myself from good sources who I know have taken the time to do the research. The Atlantic Monthly is one of my trusted sources. Granted, I may not be able to stand around the water cooler pontificating on a subject right after it has happened, but I usually don't put much creedance in people who do that sort of thing anyway.
There is very certainly bias in small media outlets. I don't know but it certainly seems to be plenty in the larger ones also. A fair amount of diversity is still present though so we don't seem to be to badly off in that area. Concern for advertiser feelings is probably a bigger goad to self-censorship than management political leanings or certainly a more dangerous one as they are all after the same advertising dollar. No diversity there.
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Comments: 14
The bias is from those who own, manage, and write the articles for the different media, whether it is radio, television, or newspaper.
The bias you see in the media is relative to your own political / ideological leanings. Any first year communication student can tell you that.
This, he made the point, is not true of much of the media. They are constantly pressured to get many stories out a day, on a limited budget. So it is no wonder that we get meaningless bits and pieces, interviews with pundits espousing their own opinions rather than solid fact - the media just doesn't want to spend the time and money to do the real research that is required for legitimate investigative reporting (which IS unbiased by its very nature).
I often delay forming an opinion on something until lI can research it for myself from good sources who I know have taken the time to do the research. The Atlantic Monthly is one of my trusted sources. Granted, I may not be able to stand around the water cooler pontificating on a subject right after it has happened, but I usually don't put much creedance in people who do that sort of thing anyway.