Re: NBC: Media Credibility (op-ed in NYTimes)

On Nov 3, 10:22 am, SMBalloon <smball...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
The New York Times
November 2, 2008, 6:46 pm
Media Credibility
By Douglas MacKinnon

Douglas MacKinnon was a press secretary to former Senator Bob Dole.
(Full biography.)

After the presidential election is over and the dust, animosity, glee
and shock settle into something manageable, the nation will need to
tackle the subject of “media bias” in a sincere and honest manner.

As an “independent conservative,” I’m expected to see liberal media
bias lurking everywhere, but it’s not just me — and it’s not just
conservatives. I know liberals, including newspaper editors, who think
the “news” pendulum had swung dangerously far to the left.

Beyond recent studies by the Pew Research Center and the Project for
Excellence in Journalism, other research shows that the media has
tilted to the left; indeed journalists themselves have openly admitted
as much.

Under the recent headline “Why McCain Is Getting Hosed in the Press,”
Politico editors John F. Harris and Jim Vandehei opined:

OK, let’s just get this over with: Yes, in the closing weeks of this
election, John McCain and Sarah Palin are getting hosed in the press,
and at Politico. And, yes, based on a combined 35 years in the news
business we’d take an educated guess — nothing so scientific as a Pew
study — that Obama will win the votes of probably 80 percent or more
of journalists covering the 2008 election. Most political journalists
we know are centrists — instinctually skeptical of ideological
zealotry — but with at least a mild liberal tilt to their thinking,
particularly on social issues. So what?

“So what?” Those two cavalier words alone speak to the larger problem..
Who cares if “80 percent or more of journalists covering the 2008
election” will vote for Barack Obama? Journalists, their editors,
management, the candidates and the American people should care.

Regarding the Obama phenomenon and the media fascination with him, a
senior staffer for a rival Democrat primary opponent offered up this
theory to me for part of the bias. This person reasoned that the
pressure within the news business to diversify and be politically
correct means more minorities, women and young people are being hired.
And young and ethnically diverse reporters and editors go easier on
candidates who look more like them, are closer to their age or
represent their ideal of a presidential candidate.

Over at ABCnews.com, Michael S. Malone, a columnist, posted an article
last week that created a firestorm of comment and interest. In part,he wrote: “The traditional media are playing a very, very dangerous

game — with their readers, with the Constitution and with their own
fates. The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this
election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling.”

Mr. Malone then uses the rest of his post to explain why he feels so.
For me and others, one of the most important points he raises is when
he talks about the dangerous game the traditional media is playing
with “their own fate.” Indeed, I — as well as two newspaper editors I
know — would argue that one reason newspapers are seeing a decline in
circulation is because they ignore or marginalize right-of-center or
conservative readers.

On Friday, in an article about Mr. Obama’s infomercial, Howard Kurtz,
The Washington Post media critic, wrote: “If the press were inclined
to hammer the Democratic nominee for buying the election after blowing
off public financing, the infomercial would be Exhibit A. But the
press is giving him a pass on the issue.”

Earlier that week, and on the direct topic of media bias in favor ofMr. Obama, he wrote: “If, as a former McCain strategist put it, “the

cake is baked” for his man’s defeat, it’s fair to ask whether the
media have provided the flour, the frosting and the candles.”

And from the West Coast, we have this timely and germane observation.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that, “In a room full of television
industry executives, no one seemed inclined to defend MSNBC on Monday
for what some were calling its lopsidedly liberal coverage of the
presidential election.” Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, a self-described
liberal and close friend of the Clinton’s punctuated the belief by
saying that she would prefer a lunch date with right-leaning Fox News
host Sean Hannity over MSNBC host Keith Olbermann. According to the
report, one aspect of the coverage that bothered Ms.
Bloodworth-Thomason and others was the way MSNBC — and other media —
has attacked Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and
demeaned her supporters.

Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean of Boston University’s College of
Communication, said, as reported by Mr. Kurtz in his media column: “If
the mainstream media are wrong about Obama and the voters pull a
Truman, that is going to be the end of whatever shred of credibility
they have left.”

My point is, regardless of whether the news media are right or wrong
about an Obama win, shouldn’t they still be concerned about that
“shred of credibility they have left?” Shouldn’t they be concerned
with numerous studies and the observations of various journalists that
the business has tilted too far to the left?

(end of commentary)

This guy took the Politico piece out of context. The Politico's piece
was saying that to say that both campaigns were doing equally well
would be disingenous. They wrote that McCain received more negative
coverage post-financial crisis because his campaign made more
mistakes. It would be like the Yankees complaining that the Tampa Bay
Rays got better press this year - of course they did...the Rays had a
much better season.

I will assert this: Journalists and columnists are attached to being
right far more than they are to their own political goals. (Sometimes
the two converge.) Had Obama started screwing up his campaign, the
press would have been on him like white on rice.
.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: OT: Media Bias?
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  • Re: OT: The End of Journalism
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  • Re: Media Credibility (op-ed in NYTimes)
    ... After the presidential election is over and the dust, animosity, glee ... As an "independent conservative," I'm expected to see liberal media ... Under the recent headline "Why McCain Is Getting Hosed in the Press," ... I'm not going to disagree with you that there is a slant toward Obama in the ...
    (rec.music.artists.springsteen)