Re: The Palestinians Are Finished

"Q" <quondam1@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

On Mar 26, 12:33 pm, "KarenElizabeth" <karenelizabe...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Mar 26, 12:27 pm, "Q" <quond...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:





Yet all you can say is they have a "bias"

They*do* have a bias. And they recruit members to function as shills
-- or watchdogs, if you prefer -- to make sure that the news is
reported in the biased way they prefer.

I don't think that they would argue that they *don't* have a bias.

Probably not. But for newsgroup discussion purposes, it would be
better -- IMO -- to present the bare facts to support a point of view,
without the tweaking and the accompanying rubric, on the theory that
the reader is smart enoughy to draw his or her own conclusions.

That would be great. It would be great if the news organisations,
websites, and press releases would do that also. Ideally, the truth
would stand on its own. In practice, when when that's the goal it
is very difficult to manage due to inherent biases in anyone who
knows something about the issue (and if the person doesn't know, why
are they compiling news on it?). Even the raw relation of facts
is replete with opportunities for bias to creep in - note the
disagreement we have here on the use of the word "militant" vs
"terrorist". ANY second-hand reading of the story will have opportunity
for bias from both the person telling and the person listening or
reading.

But you betray your own bias in the way that you phrase this. They
urge members to complain about what *they* perceive as biased or
uneven reporting, in the same manner that any number of organizations
do.

I phrased it the way I did, because there is the pretense that there
is no organized effort to manage the news or to get a certain kind of
coverage.

Yes, there is a pretense. The similarity between "pretense" and
"pretend" is not accidental.

And another word for such an organized effort -- even at a grassroots
level -- would be a lobby.

It could be, but that isn't necessarily so.

Of course, when a paper is deluged with letters that contain the
exactly same text, they tend to regard them as a meddling nuisance
rather than the vox populi.

As do government officials. It just lets them know that someone
organised is pulling the strings.



While you referred exclusively to newspapers, TV news is even easier.
Don't you see a real difference between CNN and FOX?

Sure. I've worked for the Murdoch organization -- among others -- and
I know exactly how the manipulation takes place, and at what level.
Some -- maybe most -- of Murdoch's papers and TV outlets teeter at
the brink of being tracts rather than real news products.


But I prefer print news, because the medium gives the news consumer
more time to read the material critically.

Certainly easier than broadcast media. It's amazing what heppened
when someone bothered to record Rush Limbaugh's broadcasts and
fact-check them...

Is having a bias the same as being "remarkably inaccurate?"

A newspaper can be inaccurate without having a bias. Carelessness is
more frequently the cause of inaccuracy than bias.

Of course it can. But it can also be inaccurate with a bias.

Or
accurate with one.

I'm more interested in the second alternative. It's easier to catch
-- and correct -- things that are downright inaccurate. Emotive
wording is more subtle.

Yes, it's a more insidious problem, especially as it creates
the (emotive) impression in the reader. Consider the impact
that the word "terrorist" has vs "militant," to beat that
horse yet again.


Do the same with *Occupied Arab
Jerusalem* *an Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem* and *Jerusalem* Now
try this one. *An American student was beaten today in Jerusalem*
and *an American Jewish student was pulled from his cab in an Arab
neighborhood and beaten by Arabs* Both are absolutely true, but they
convey different stories. These are all games newspapers play.
They're not telling lies, but they're slanting things.

I'm certainly not suggesting that the sole area that this happens is
with respect to Israel or Jews. Its ubiquitous.

There are many ways of getting from A to B in telling a story. As in
the example you give, the first version presents such bare facts that
it almost doesn't qualify as a story, unless the details are furnished
further along. So I would expect that the paper -- any paper that
covered such a story -- would eventually get around to revealing the
crucial fact that the student was Jewish and his assailants were
Arabs.

Do you know what percentage of people read a news story beyond the
first few paragraphs? I'm not talking about the well-informed
person; that person is in the tiny minority. I'm talking about the
vast majority. Yes, it's scary - but that's what we're dealing with.
In the aggregate, these people have tremendous inertia, and tremendous
power. When they are misinformed, or the wrong impression is created
in their heads, it can bode very poorly.

--
Don Levey If knowledge is power,
Framingham, MA and power corrupts, then...
NOTE: email server uses spam filters; mail sent to salearn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
will be used to tune the blocking lists.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Fifty-six Deceits in Fahrenheit 911
    ... >>kensmith@green.rahul.net (Ken Smith) wrote in message ... > reporting is bias, you also have to admit that their reporting of their ... > bias must be biased. ... >>news, Rush Limbaugh and FOX NEWS would have never evolved into the ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: The Palestinians Are Finished
    ... inaccurate itself and ignore it. ... CAMERA is the Fox News of Middle East Reporting. ... They have a definite bias and attack any in the media who do not ...
    (soc.culture.jewish.moderated)
  • Re: Lib Dem Defections
    ... reporting when that bias happens to favour your point of view. ... What I don't see is a consistent, overwhelming right-wing bias: I see some right-wing biased reporting and I see some left-wing biased reporting. ... Therefore truly neutral news would not apply this term to either side. ... I don't think one can say there's been a general pro-Huhne movement within the Liberal Democrats which the press has ignored. ...
    (uk.politics.electoral)
  • Re: Fifty-six Deceits in Fahrenheit 911
    ... > reporting is bias, you also have to admit that their reporting of their ... > bias must be biased. ... >>news, Rush Limbaugh and FOX NEWS would have never evolved into the ... >> and there is a reason why the left can't create a huge ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: obviousman the movie
    ... > Do you think news outlets should give people the news the people say ... counter their institutional biases so as to provide broader coverage. ... Terror including our campaign in Iraq. ... Danny-boy is the poster child for cluelessness and bias in the media. ...
    (rec.arts.comics.strips)