Nuclear Beef

Darwin,

Nice post. I agree entirely that the perception of bias in the news-media is an increasing problem.

Whenever I end up debating current affairs with my conservative friends, many of them refuse to accept material from any news sources to the left of Fox, while I am similarly reluctant to debate using all-Fox material.

While you can argue about who started the new-wave of increasingly partisan broadcasting that we're now seeing (the right or the left), it can't be a good thing.

Take Air America Radio. While I agree with the vast majority of the views expressed therein and still find many of those I don’t agree with (Randy Rhodes comparing George W Bush to Fredo Corleone) funny, I do recognise it's about as fair and balanced as the Rush Limbaugh show.

I think one of the things that has pushed starkly partisan news commentary forward is the increasing dominance of just a few companies across the media - A prime example being Rupert Murdoch's sprawling army of right wing pundits (possibly more visible in the English tabloids I'm forced to endure than anywhere else). Each of his papers, magazines and television shows demonstrates an obvious right-wing slant... This seems to have recently lead to the left fighting back with a string of similarly partisan shows.

I feel I have to defend Franken a little though. While it IS hard to imagine the man who played Pat or Stuart Smalley as a serious political commentator, he is a Harvard graduate and has been doing political satire and the lecture circuit for over 15 years. The way he delivers his material may detract from what he has to say, however, he does advertise his satire as just that, whereas many similarly biased commentators present material with a definite partisan stripe as fair commentary: I'm taking of course about people like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Anne Coultier, Rush Liimbaugh etc. etc. etc.

One show which I love and firmly believe has only one bias: Against whoever Tim Sebastian interviews (left and right he makes it his mission to rip them apart) is the BBC’s Hardtalk. You can view it online at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/programmes/hardtalk/

The latest episode is an interview with the Israeli Justice Minister, which is a nice example as you can compare it to Sebastian's prior interview with the Hammas leader on the same page.

- Danny

"...I feel I have to defend Franken a little though. While it IS hard to imagine the man who played Pat or Stuart Smalley as a serious political commentator,..."

Just a correction - the character 'Pat' was played by Julia Sweeney, as shown by the same link Darwin used :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110169/

And, of course, a definition of "pat" is "glib or facile".

D'Oh.

Glib, Facile? Not a bad description of my post :-(

Lazy post 'scuse the error.

- Danny

I have a similar experience with my peers re: sourcing. Basically, I offer to trade them Fox News for Salon, or Newsmax for Counterpunch, or The Washington Times for the LA Times.

I've yet to have someone take me up on the offer, probably because they've noticed that I never rely on Fox, Newsmax or the Washington Times for sourcing. This stands in sharp contrast to my peers, who rely very heavily on "alternative" media. Some part of this is due to mass-media consolidation, but I think more frequently they select far-left media because of its emotional appeal.

My primary concerns with the media are (in order):

---

#1) Incompetence

This is pretty straightforward. The sheer number of very very obvious errors in the professional press is frightening. More subtle errors like not establishing proper context for statistics, over-reliance on anonymous sourcing, &c. also abound.

#2) Sensationalism

This is where I see the corporate influence as being most powerful. Applicable to all facets of reporting, creating a bias for stories which can be summarized into compelling reporting. Unfortunately compelling reporting is not necessarily accurate or relevant. It is often merely compelling, usually via blunt emotional appeal.

#3) Explicit political bias

This one comes in below the other two because I believe this has always been present in the press. The difference in the year 2004 is, IMO, that there are now actually two DIFFERENT sides to a story. Before Fox News existed, their audience (who are more generally conservative) had no organization with a conservative slant from which to self-select their media. Their options were a wide array of approximately consistent (and liberal) organizations like, say, that network founded by Jane Fonda's husband. ;) (CNN)

---

In my opinion the liberal bias in the media is a result of self-selection. Those most likely to become journalists are, IMO, also those most likely to have a liberal arts education. They don't call them the "liberal" arts for nothing, and I think the statistics on the political alignment of academe support this perspective. This perspective also doesn't require a vast liberal conspiracy, just people behaving in accordance to their beliefs.

The problem is that journalism is supposed to focus on balance, at the expense of the journalists personal beliefs. Again, incompetence... :)

I'm glad that you see the explicit partisanship as possibly counterproductive.

Regarding Franken, I agree that he has about as much to say as a Michael Moore or Rush Limbaugh, ie, I acknowledge the value of satire in contributing to political dialogue.

What really bothers me about Franken is that in the last few years he has crossed the line from a political comedian to a comedic politico. That is, he is actively working for one side (for example the meeting of US media bigwigs with John Kerry _IN FRANKENS HOME_) while still attempting to present himself as a wildcard jester. I found him a lot more credible before he became, IMO, just another political hack.

I was just being sardonic by suggesting he was 'Pat' which is why I put the "extended entry" disclaimer on the bottom. You have to admit, though, that the 'Pat' character looks, well.. an awful lot like Al Franken.

In a funny side note, Amazon has the following :

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00008L3TW
"
Buy this DVD with 'Stuart Saves His Family' (DVD ~ Al Franken) today!
"

Giggle.

=darwin