Comments on: Got Bias?

By: Roger Green

Roger Green — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:08:55 +0000

Adversarial in the sense that they talk about the nuances. Obama has a big plan for the economy – but he has no dollar amount. The news too often would state the first part as fed to them, but not bother with the second part.
The govt said “Trust us” when we went into Iraq. Somehow, the media seemed to say, “OK, we trust you.” Not their jobs. They have to ask the WHY questions.

By: Anthony Velez

Anthony Velez — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:21:18 +0000

The thing about being adversarial is that it is a posture that doesn’t easily fit with objectivity, not that it can’t. If by adversarial you mean that a reporter should be more aggressive in asking questions when it appears that politicians are not being direct and forthcoming, then yes, I suppose a more adversarial approach is called for. On the other hand, adversarial often means the opposing side or position, and if reporters go at people with this posture I don’t think it will provide clarity and understanding.

I think the basic idea is that reporters are supposed to be friends of the truth, people who report the facts. The problem is that the relationship between truth and facts on the one hand and the role of interpretation on the other is itself problematic. The key question here is how much do facts actually speak for themselves, and how much is the significance of a fact contingent upon a person’s values and underlying beliefs.

In relation to all this, I wonder if it would be helpful if reporters intentionally highlighted where ambiguities exist regarding how events can be understood. Of course, this kind of reporting requires patience on the part of the listening audience, which does not fit well with the media, and its orientation on readily digestible chunks of information.

By: Roger Green

Roger Green — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:55:43 +0000

Actually, I’m quite aware of my biases.

Keith Olbermann I tend to agree with, but I grew weary of him nonetheless. Anyone who outyells to make their point, regardless of the truthfulness of their point, is out with me.

I suppose Bill Moyers may have a left bias, but when you’re challenging the status quo, and it’s been a W. staus quo…

Actually, the best news reporting has been the Daily Show. I’ll give you but one example. McCain gives his acceptance speech for the GOP nom. The MSM dutifully reports it as “news”. Only the Daily Show bothered to investigate and note how much of it was taken directly from GWB’s acceptance speech of 2000. Now that’s news!

Generally speaking, I think the news should be taking a more adversarial position with politicians. Some local reporter got kudos for asking the hard questions of (I think) McCain, but my position at the time and now is that’s what the reporters OUGHT to have done.

Reporters got to be chicken after 9/11 and it took a long time for them to get their proverbial cojones back.