Sunday, November 16, 2008
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Touching Journalism's "Third Rail"
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Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
4:09 PM
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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.
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Deborah Howell writes about Remedying the Bias Perception (via memeorandum) But some of the conservatives' complaints about a liberal tilt are valid. Journalism naturally draws liberals; we like to change the world. I'll bet that most Post journalists voted for Obama. I did. There are centrists at The Post as well. But the conservatives I know here feel so outnumbered that they don't even want to be quoted by name in a memo. Talk about a hostile work environment! In any other context this kind of bias wouldn't be countenanced by an organization like the Post, but here it's just...here |
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