Sunday, November 16, 2008
|
|
Touching Journalism's "Third Rail"
|
|
Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
4:09 PM
|
Ombudsmen at two of America's most prestigious papers today approach the issue of liberal bias in reporting.
New York Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt essentially denounces reporter Jodi Kantor's attempt to contact Bridget McCain's school mates for a hit piece on Cindy McCain.
Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell admits that Post coverage could well give conservatives cause to feel "disrespected." She goes on to note that papers should hire more conservatives, but blames the economy for the fact that "hiring is at a standstill."
But perhaps the most provocative part of her piece is its last paragraph, naming the newly-elected Obama as "the authority the news media will challenge. It happens in every administration."
Hm. Well, we'll see. That's the way it's happened until now. But it's worth asking whether the press will go all "Chris Matthews" on Americans, and decide its mission is to make sure that the historic presidency of Barack Obama is a success -- for many of the same reasons that journalists couldn't resist becoming cheerleaders for his candidacy.
Sad to say, I have doubts whether the anti-authority impulses in the press will trump the Obama worship we've seen up until now.
|
|
"Here lies a fallen god,
His fall was not a small one,
We did but build a pedestal,
a narrow and a tall one."
-- Frank Herbert |
|
how the "higher-ups" at some of these MSM "rags" are NOW willing to admit they were in the tank for Obama and the Dems and biased against McCain and the GOP..........
Why not before the elections???????
because they were as biased as their subordinates in wanting "The Messiah" elected POTUS.......
an "early reveal" might have hurt the Dems' chances......
Don't wait to reveal it now and expect that we'll heap compliments of "integrity" on you....
we're smarter than that.......
NOW.......expect a move back toward the center by CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, NY Times, Wash.Post, LA Times, etc......
Because they now want your support and YOUR MONEY again to survive.......
Don't be fooled by this "group think" strategy....
They WILL do it again next election cycle.... |
|
|
.........Ginger. There is no need for the Fairness Doctrune! |
|
|
.........the Fairness Doctrune must be stopped at all cost! |
|
The Wash Post ombudsman says that one of the remedies for liberal bias in reporting is to hire more conservatives, but that it won't be easy because "editors hire not on the basis of beliefs but on talent in reporting, photography and editing" and then goes on to say "hiring is at a standstill."
I say, BALONEY to the first claim. Editors are more inclined to hire those who think and write news and opinion pieces that are consistent with their own beliefs. Liberals have no monopoly on talent.
The fact that "hiring is at a standstill" is representative of another fact; long before the financial crisis, people like myself were going elsewhere for news and opinion because what we found in publications like the New York Times and Washington Post was inconsistent with our own beliefs and not convincing in persuading us otherwise. Ms. Howell at the Wash Post admits that many of her colleagues are liberals who want to meddle to "make things better." If that is their intent, they will find themselves preaching to their own choir. Net gain toward intended result = zero.
The proliferation of talk radio, blogs such as TownHall, and other alternative media reflect the fact that many of us won't surrender the "authority" over determining which changes are desirable (if any) to the press. We'll seek out our own sources of information, talk to each other and to those that challenge us and act as our own authority.
Dissemination of information is flattening and many of us are concluding that one-sided newspapers and news programs have little of value to offer us and much to offend, so we're tuning out. Hear that, advertisers?
For those who want to shut down the flow and exchange of dissenting information(through the so-called Fairness Doctrine), we will be watching and fighting to maintain our access by fighting for the constitutional rights of those who put the information out. Hear that, Schumer? |
|
Ginger - Wash Post ombudsman does not say truth has a liberal bias; she says that meddling to effect change has a liberal bias and she is correct.
YOU say truth has a liberal bias. You are an authority on nothing that I submit to.
I generally skip your posts because I can predict what you will write and I don't buy it.
I think you are also misreading the results of this election. Your guy moved decidedly to the center and benefitted from tough economic times (much of it caused by the huge economic impact of liberal programs that loaded the financial system with ballast that will be difficult to overcome). Unless he stays there and exercises fiscal conservatism, he will make things worse and will soon lose his luster.
As he would say, "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." Truth is truth and it eventually finds its expression regardless of the bias in reporting. |
|
spinning her bull*s*h*i*t yet again........
can't fathom the truth...even when those who "favor" her team admit the bias.......
her strategy is to talk in circles and divert the discussion away from anything that doesn't suit her agenda......
SAD!!!! |
|
|
The media's impulse to challenge aiuthority will not trump their wish, rather need, to see Obama succeed. They are invested in his success. This is the problem with selling the soul. There are no half-sales or buy-back options. Once done, it is done: it is all or nothing. |
|
|
The WaPo ombusdsman has it all wrong. They don't need to hire more conservative reporters, they need to hire reporters who will objectively report the news across the entire spectrum of viewpoints. It's not about liberal vs conservative reporting. It's about doing your job. |
|
Bravo......
the first person to "get it".....
You're right...just need someone to do their job...
and their job is?????......
OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM....... |
|
|
Frank Herbert? OMG. I haven't read that in a long time!!! I need to go back and chekc my library. Oh wait, I gave those to charity, also a long time ago. |
|
There is no way that the liberal media could ever criticize Obama.
When Obama's ancient and discredited economic nostrums deepen the recession it will be said it wasn't his failure, the economy was far worse under Bush than anyone had imagined.
When wars break out and hundreds of thousands die, it will be because of errors and crimes of past administrations, not because Obama's indecisiveness gave impetus the world's thugs to attack innocent countries.
When starvation returns to the US it will be seen as a blessing because the Great Obama will have solved the problem of obesity in America.
People think that Hitler and Stalin were hated by the people whose lives they controlled. Not so. They were the most beloved leaders of their time. Leni Riefenstahl's diabolically brilliant propaganda film showed the cheering crowds, the fainting women, the men with tears in their eyes all overcome with emotion at the sight of their Aryan Savior.
These scenes weren't faked, they were shot in actual crowds during Hitler's speeches. The emotions were real, and to any rational being, these displays are terrifying. They reveal the subhuman depths that humans can achieve when they surrender their minds and their will to the purposes of others.
Fortunately, Obama is not Hitler and America is not 1930's Germany. But the same forces the gave rise to the Nazi dictatorship are in effect at all times. In the US it is the media who are most subject to those forces.
Many journalists enter the field to "change the world". In Obama, they see their opportunity. The desire to be part of a great and noble undertaking, the desire to serve a cause "greater than yourself", these are the forces that modern reporters cannot resist any more than their German counterparts could 80 years ago.
In the words of Fox Mulder - Trust No One. Always do your own fact checking. Lies can't spread if you don't let them. |
|
|
Unfortunately many of them use this blog to confuse issues and put the focus on themselves to accomplish this goal of distraction. This tactic works quite well. |
|
|
Nope, I think we have gone over the cliff with regard to media objectivity. It is not coming back in the MSM unless we have a total revolution in this country by consumers. That may be underway. It is sad and laughable all at the same time to see the extent to which the media illuminati have deceived themselves. But therein lies their downfall. |
|
Dont trust the Media,
CBS,NBC,CNN,ABC,MSNBC,NY TIMES,LA TIMES etc..
they coust McCain/Palin the election,
we need a person like Governor Mitt Romney to run in 2012 with the help from
Governor Sarah Palin,
with Michael Steele as chairman of the RNC,
to attack the Democrates,Obama,Polsi,Reid,
and John Boehner as M Leader, we have a chance,
we need a true Conservative on top of the ticket,
we have to go back to our,
Christian Conservative roots,
Romney/Palin would be a winning ticket in 2012. |
|
Hayek dedicated his most famous book to "The Socialists of All Parties".
Conservatism wasn't repudiated. Bush and McCain's brand of socialism was, ie. compassionate "conservatism". |
|
|
|