It is a major theme of this blog that everything can be psychoanalyzed and so let's dispense with the myth that we have an objective press in this country (the media professor Marvin Kalb's position), there is no such beast whether we are talking about FOX News or CNN which makes Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' recent refusal to participate in a FOX debate all the more hilarious. It would be far more honest and easier to swallow if shows like "Dateline" and "Primetime Live" preceded their broadcasts with this disclaimer - "what you are about to see is an opinion piece where facts and various 'experts' were selectively marshalled to make the case."
The msm are:
(1) Secular - religious stories important to other people are not even a blip on the msm radar screen. Interested in the life of St. Padre Pio? then go to EWTN, you niche people you.
(2) Feminist - this goes a long way towards explaining why so much of the msm are anti-porn but also pro-abortion, it's a Gloria Steinem thing. It also may help explain the media's heavy emphasis on crime stories of late especially as it affects women (men getting raped in prison ain't no big thing). In real life people may be lovesick and obsessed but in media land there is no such thing as the harmless stalker. In fact there is nothing but CRIME on CBS nowadays, real and imagined.
(3) Question authority at all turns, especially when it comes to matters of race - as in the tragic Sean Bell case which a Queens NY grand jury is now considering. On Nov. 25 of last year the 23 year old Bell, an unarmed black man, and his two friends, also black, also apparently unarmed, were shot by 5 NYPD detectives outside the Kalua strip club in Jamaica Queens. Bell, who was to be married later that day, was killed and his two friends were wounded but survived. With the notable exception of the more right-wing New York Post nobody in the NYC mainstream press bothered explaining how Bell allegedly attempting to drive over a cop who identified himself may have precipitated the whole thing. Now there is talk if the jury doesn't hand up the "right" verdict the fit will hit the shan.
Geraldo Rivera, more honest than most, when asked why he became a journalist famously said "to make the world a better place." Anyone else want to confess?
Which is not to say you can never get anything out of biased reporting, you can, most likely they contain half-truths but if you believe, as many of the members of the msm do, that a reporter's worldview never influences his reporting then you're not living in the real world. There are people, many of them, who only read the New York Times and nothing else, not good, you need to get a variety of views to consider and use other news sources. Too many believe whatever they read in the Times is gospel but the Jayson Blair fiasco should have dispelled that notion.
ReplyDeleteThe constant drumbeat of those on the Right over liberal media bias is getting tiresome. It was good for the Right to have their period of ascendancy to balance things out but it's like they're reading from the same bible or something (you talk about the NY Times). I do sense a strong bias in today's reporting but I'm not always sure what it is, sometimes it's liberal but sometimes it seems more conservative as you say. Maybe it's just people being human.
ReplyDeleteI might agree with you that it is people being human, and the msm ringleaders don't think they lean one way and might sincerely believe that. Therein lies the problem.
ReplyDeleteAre you having a good day today, z-man?
As I remember this case, Black and Latino officers account for a majority of the 5 officers involved in the shooting.. With all respect, I think that you as well as Al Sharpton should tread lightly on this subject, until all the facts and testimony is out. This is by no means a open and shut case yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm ok, I'm on vacation this week. It's like alcoholism and the denial that goes with it, the msm deny they even have a problem. The problem for us is if we agree at times with the media's bias as I did the other night with the "Primetime" special on porn you won't consider their bias wrong. Now the show gave me alot of food for thought but at the end I realized I was simply watching an op-ed piece, if only it had been labeled as such as with all media products and I'd have no problem. The only way you can get it straight is if a computer or a robot does the news.
ReplyDeleteI do find it disturbing though, cisco, that the msm in NYC are not informing us that the officers maintain that Sean Bell tried to drive his car over one officer more than once even after the officer identified himself. This IS a thread of the testimony and it is important. If there are race riots over this matter I would place a large blame on all the news stations in NY. The utmost respect the media here afford this former Tawana Brawley charlatan known as Al Sharpton is amazing and makes my case for me that the media are not at all objective when it comes to race.
ReplyDeleteHuman nature being what it is, we do look at situations through a prism of our own bias, whether we realize it or not. That is why it is best to look at a variety of sources before making judgments on many news stories.
ReplyDeleteI must agree with Beth and Cisco on this one. It is best to look at a variety of sources before making judgments . Especially when someone is rushing to the side of whatever Al Sharpton or the MSM has to say. As they say, there is always two sides to the same story.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a travesty of justice to rush to punishment of these officers on the basis of social factors. We must wait and see the other side of the story.
Remember that one of those cops, who had never fired a single shot before, was responsible for getting 600 guns off the street. Maybe he was wrong this time, or maybe not.