More than half of Americans say US news organizations are politically biased, inaccurate, and don’t care about the people they report on, a poll published Thursday showed.
And in other “news” this morning . . . (1) I stepped out of the shower and my hair was wet; (2) my kids found something to argue over with each other; (3) I drove to work and my office was still here.
Well this is easily explained: the news media is biased, inaccurate and uncaring.
News media, now being corporate run, is self-serving. Its interests are not journalism, but money. If there wasn’t “stunning new revelations” about a recent city council development, the fear is that fewer people would watch the local news. If fewer people watch, less money can be made.
Take the Weather Channel, for instance. It’s a business. Designed to make money for its owners and shareholders, presumably. Therefore, its self-promoting commercials have to be designed to pull in as many people as possible. “Is a tropical storm threatening the entire southeast? Stay tuned to find out!” The level of precision used to predict weather is much lower than on an independent site like weatherunderground or NOAA. TWC has something to gain by leading additional people to believe they are being threatened by severe weather.
FOX, NBC, CBS et al have something to gain by “creating” news. The interests of the viewer are not what’s at stake anymore than they are for media outlets like MTV or Comedy Central.
Here’s another example. In a recent AP report following the Minnesota bridge tragedy, it was reported that the owner of the Minnesota Vikings football team had used his podium to call for a new stadium. There were even quotes, making it clear that Mr. Wilf wanted the new stadium built, after just a passing thought offering condolences to the victims. Obviously, this put Wilf in a very negative light. For some reason, folks in Minneapolis weren’t outraged, though.
Turns out, a similar article written by a local reporter used quotes from the same press conference. Only he put them into their proper context. Wilf was [i]asked[/i] about the stadium and said something to the effect of “It’s true that we do want a new stadium deal, as part of a larger infrastructure upgrade for the entire city. But now is not the time to be discussing this sort of thing.” The national media ran with the most outrageous part of the quotes. And, from a capitalistic point of view, it is the “duty” of a corporation to look out for its own financial self-interest. If that’s the chief motivating factor, a news outlet can easily pick and choose what to report, and how to report–while still technically reporting factual information–in order to generate the most revenue.
We need to be better, more-informed consumers of media in general, and that includes news media.
Because of several scandals and self-serving leadership, America is losing confidence in its intitutions – Congress, the President (of whatever party), the Church, and the news media. This does not bode well for our society. If we can’t trust our leaders (or we trust them to act wrongly) then we can’t really function as a society and the rule of law will eventually break down. We will be playing an eternal game of “gotcha!” and little progress will be made.
Pray for God to raise up leaders who look beyond themselves for the greater good of society and not just their political party or their august personages.
Amen, Phil Snyder. On behalf of the news media … I’d like to say that in the realm of small-town weeklies, anyway, journalists care very much about their communities and try very hard to get it right. And in the case of the larger dailies, the journalists are under a lot of pressure from the uncaring – truly – people who own the papers. What has happened to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the last 8 months is heart-breaking. The paper has been taken apart and reduced to an unworthy competitor for Creative Loafing (a free paper, doing a much better job than the AJC).
#7, Sherri, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution has had falling subscriptions because of its left leaning political bias for years. As Atlanta grew from 2,000,000 to 4,500,000, that paper went from 800,000 to less than 400,000, and that is without another large daily paper in place to compete against it. As all of us in the metro area know, if it is not about racial issues, it will not be published in the AJC. And forget publication of any letters to the editor if one’s point of view is not far to the left, politically. About the only thing that can be said about that paper positively is that it has a good sports page, if one likes baseball, football, or college basketball, with a few lines left over for other sports.
The only reason I subscribe to the Tallahassee Demon-crap is for the grocery and sales pages, the comics and the local events. Otherwise, I could well do without it.
Awfully funny to me that FAUX – I mean FOX – News viewers are among the most cynical about the media:
Fully 63% of Americans who count Fox as their main news source say news stories are often inaccurate — a view held by fewer than half of those who cite CNN (46%) or network news (41%) as their main source. Similarly, Fox viewers are far more likely to say the press is too critical of America (52% vs. 36% of CNN viewers and 29% of network news viewers). Fully 71% of Fox News Republicans hold an unfavorable opinion of major national newspapers, compared with 52% of Republicans who use other sources, and 33% of those who are not Republicans.
Can’t wait to see the impact Murdoch has on lowering our standards now that he has hold of the WSJ.
I wonder if they included the ENS is that survey? They are always objective and accurate.
And in other “news” this morning . . . (1) I stepped out of the shower and my hair was wet; (2) my kids found something to argue over with each other; (3) I drove to work and my office was still here.
Well this is easily explained: the news media is biased, inaccurate and uncaring.
News media, now being corporate run, is self-serving. Its interests are not journalism, but money. If there wasn’t “stunning new revelations” about a recent city council development, the fear is that fewer people would watch the local news. If fewer people watch, less money can be made.
Take the Weather Channel, for instance. It’s a business. Designed to make money for its owners and shareholders, presumably. Therefore, its self-promoting commercials have to be designed to pull in as many people as possible. “Is a tropical storm threatening the entire southeast? Stay tuned to find out!” The level of precision used to predict weather is much lower than on an independent site like weatherunderground or NOAA. TWC has something to gain by leading additional people to believe they are being threatened by severe weather.
FOX, NBC, CBS et al have something to gain by “creating” news. The interests of the viewer are not what’s at stake anymore than they are for media outlets like MTV or Comedy Central.
Here’s another example. In a recent AP report following the Minnesota bridge tragedy, it was reported that the owner of the Minnesota Vikings football team had used his podium to call for a new stadium. There were even quotes, making it clear that Mr. Wilf wanted the new stadium built, after just a passing thought offering condolences to the victims. Obviously, this put Wilf in a very negative light. For some reason, folks in Minneapolis weren’t outraged, though.
Turns out, a similar article written by a local reporter used quotes from the same press conference. Only he put them into their proper context. Wilf was [i]asked[/i] about the stadium and said something to the effect of “It’s true that we do want a new stadium deal, as part of a larger infrastructure upgrade for the entire city. But now is not the time to be discussing this sort of thing.” The national media ran with the most outrageous part of the quotes. And, from a capitalistic point of view, it is the “duty” of a corporation to look out for its own financial self-interest. If that’s the chief motivating factor, a news outlet can easily pick and choose what to report, and how to report–while still technically reporting factual information–in order to generate the most revenue.
We need to be better, more-informed consumers of media in general, and that includes news media.
[blockquote] Steven in Falls Church wrote:
(3) I drove to work and my office was still here. [/blockquote]
I am truly sorry about that.
Because of several scandals and self-serving leadership, America is losing confidence in its intitutions – Congress, the President (of whatever party), the Church, and the news media. This does not bode well for our society. If we can’t trust our leaders (or we trust them to act wrongly) then we can’t really function as a society and the rule of law will eventually break down. We will be playing an eternal game of “gotcha!” and little progress will be made.
Pray for God to raise up leaders who look beyond themselves for the greater good of society and not just their political party or their august personages.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
Amen, Phil Snyder. On behalf of the news media … I’d like to say that in the realm of small-town weeklies, anyway, journalists care very much about their communities and try very hard to get it right. And in the case of the larger dailies, the journalists are under a lot of pressure from the uncaring – truly – people who own the papers. What has happened to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the last 8 months is heart-breaking. The paper has been taken apart and reduced to an unworthy competitor for Creative Loafing (a free paper, doing a much better job than the AJC).
#7, Sherri, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution has had falling subscriptions because of its left leaning political bias for years. As Atlanta grew from 2,000,000 to 4,500,000, that paper went from 800,000 to less than 400,000, and that is without another large daily paper in place to compete against it. As all of us in the metro area know, if it is not about racial issues, it will not be published in the AJC. And forget publication of any letters to the editor if one’s point of view is not far to the left, politically. About the only thing that can be said about that paper positively is that it has a good sports page, if one likes baseball, football, or college basketball, with a few lines left over for other sports.
The only reason I subscribe to the Tallahassee Demon-crap is for the grocery and sales pages, the comics and the local events. Otherwise, I could well do without it.
Awfully funny to me that FAUX – I mean FOX – News viewers are among the most cynical about the media:
Fully 63% of Americans who count Fox as their main news source say news stories are often inaccurate — a view held by fewer than half of those who cite CNN (46%) or network news (41%) as their main source. Similarly, Fox viewers are far more likely to say the press is too critical of America (52% vs. 36% of CNN viewers and 29% of network news viewers). Fully 71% of Fox News Republicans hold an unfavorable opinion of major national newspapers, compared with 52% of Republicans who use other sources, and 33% of those who are not Republicans.
Can’t wait to see the impact Murdoch has on lowering our standards now that he has hold of the WSJ.
#9 libraryjim,
I have the same feeling about our local paper (Muskegon Chronicle).