Media Bias? 5
Interesting essay on this topic over at Delaware Liberal:
I’m a sucker. I tend to think that most reporters try to be objective.
Note: I said reporters, not “commentators.”
(Q.: What’s the difference between a “commentor” and a “commentator”?
A: $500,000 a year.
Q: If a commentor does comments, what does a commentator do? Commentation?)
But one does not obtain objectivity by having three quotes from one side and three quotes from the other side.
Objectivity means holding the claims of both sides up against the facts.
Somehow, much of contemporary journalism has lost site of the concept of objectivity requires testing claims against facts.
Addendum, 30 seconds later:
I urge you to follow the link and check the comments. Alan Loudell, long-time program director for WILM-AM (until it was gobbled up by the Borg Clear Channel and now with WDEL-AM added a long and thoughful comment to the post.
I have met Mr. Loudell, though I’m certain he wouldn’t remember me, in the course of arranging a Girl Scout tour of WILM. He is a gracious gentleman.
April 9, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I’m not sure what you mean… I think reporters should report facts; I think reporters should report claims of each side; how to measure them all up is best left to the viewer, listener, reader, etc.
April 10, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Well, what I’m getting at is this.
Reporting competing quotations is not reporting facts. It’s reporting assertions.
Facts exist somewhere beneath (or, as in the case of the Iraq War, in a whole nother universe from) the assertions.
Reporters should look beyond the assertions and dig up the facts. If the facts support the claims, they should report that; if the facts don’t, the reporters should report that.
Too many reporters stop at the claims and don’t dig up the facts.
Lies are best combatted with truth, not with assertions.
April 11, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Opie –
I think reporters should report facts; I think reporters should report claims of each side; how to measure them all up is best left to the viewer, listener, reader, etc.
Sounds good but leaves out the fact that there is an objective truth somewhere. If I say the room is painted black and you say the room is painted white it does not naturally follow that the room is gray.
A better conclusion is that one of us is lying.
THANKS FOR THE LINK!
April 11, 2007 at 5:37 pm
That gets to what I’m talking about. Reporters need to give us facts, not just quotes.
And the facts are out there. It just sort of takes a little work to find them.
April 11, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Jason: Well I have no reason to think you are lying, so it must be me. My experience, though, is that reporters have already decided the objective truth while still in the newsroom, and then grab a photog and a company car in search of material to support that “truth.”