Oh, That Biased Media
One of the top news stories of the day is the continuing introspection of the media geared towards their own supposed bias in reporting.
It’s gotten to the point where it’s almost a cliché; biased pundits point out bias, biased readers decry biased reporters, biased journalists skewer biased politicians and the cycle continues.
The issue of media bias is largely a non-story perpetrated by the media themselves. I suspect the reason for this is pure, unadulterated laziness.
The “real story” can be in Afghanistan, it’s in Iraq, it’s in Iran, it’s in Guantanamo Bay, it’s in Washington D.C., it’s in your local city hall and police departments. The story of media bias is the easy one to report on — it costs nothing to publishers and news program executives. There’s no travel, there’s no accommodations, there’s no per diem, there’s no radical terrorist sticking you in a cage and beheading you. It’s the easy way out, and it’s selling right now.
It’s selling all of us out.
If Woodward and Bernstein were alive today…er…if they were still reporting at the city desk today, there would never be a Watergate, there would never be a resignation of a sitting president. That’s because there would be a storm of bloggers and pundits casting doubt on their work, there would be editors far more interested in putting a picture of J. Lo or Britney Spears on page one, there would be publishers in the pocket of their advertisers who would blanche at making any waves. In short, Watergate and Nixon couldn’t happen today.
I read with utter horror the report that said a majority of Americans felt the press had too many freedoms.
I’ll type that again.
A majority of free-thinking Americans felt there was too much freedom of the press. Apparently, these people want to be lied to. They want to be coddled. They just want to hear the supposed good news, like 50 Cent apologized to The Game, so now they don’t have to shoot one another the next time they run into each other at Hot 97 FM.
I’ve worked for major media firms and I’ve worked for small weekly newspapers. I’m pleased to report to you that there is bias at every company I worked for. Once, just a few days after 9/11, a night editor at the paper I worked for confided in me that she wouldn’t fly the American flag on her house because she lived in a neighborhood with too many immigrants. She said she didn’t want to offend her neighbors by flying the American flag. In America. I’m not sure if that’s what you call bias, but I believe thinking like that is borderline insane. And she was in charge of what went on page one.
Page one at every single newspaper in America is a study in bias. I prefer to call it “news judgment,” however. This week, it was my decision to run the bullfrog story on page one, above fold. I chose to run the Alderman Butcher story on page one, above fold. Those were “biased” decisions in that I felt they were the most interesting or appropriate stories to put there. In other Northland papers, you will see riveting features about their advertisers in that space or in the case of the major metropolitan daily, whatever stories you see reported in the independent press will surely make their way to their front page in about two or three week’s time (did you hear they’re shutting down I-635?)
America was founded on the principles of freedom – the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion. The free press is the key to preserving those freedoms. When the government can’t help you, when the police and the lawyers don’t care, the last remaining option for men like Mr. Felt (aka Deep Throat) remains the press. Not everything printed is good, not all of it gives everyone a fair shake, but then, if you paid attention in class to your biased textbooks, you should be smart enough to figure that all out and take it for what it’s worth. Thanks for your 25 cents.