Posted on 10/20/2004 6:28:43 AM PDT by MindBender26
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- ABC news anchor Peter Jennings said he's getting an earful on media coverage.
Jennings is on a swing through battleground states, including Iowa and Missouri, where polls show the race could go either to President George W. Bush or Sen. John Kerry.
Jennings gets questions about a CBS report on Bush's National Guard service, for which CBS news anchor Dan Rather later apologized and said the story was a mistake. He's also asked about Sinclair Broadcasting's decision to air a controversial documentary on Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam war record. Another big question regards an ABC internal memo from the political director suggesting that reporters need not "reflexively" hold both sides of the presidential election "equally" accountable.
Jennings said the media is now under the hot lights.
"I'm a little concerned about this notion everybody wants us to be objective," Jennings said.
Jennings said that everyone -- even journalists -- have points of view through which they filter their perception of the news. It could be race, sex or income. But, he said, reporters are ideally trained to be as objective as possible.
"And when we don't think we can be fully objective, to be fair," the anchorman said.
Does the public think network news is fair? There are a number of opinion polls that show news consumers feel that the media does have a slant.
Jennings maintains those polls may be driven by groups with an agenda.
"There's a whole industry of conservatives saying, 'Ah, it's those damn liberals,' and a whole group of liberals saying, 'It's all those damn conservatives,'" Jennings said.
The problematic response, Jennings said, is the way people tailor the way they consume news.
"If you tailor your news viewing, as some people are now doing, so that you only get one point of view, well of course you're going to think somebody else has got a different point of view, and it may be wrong," Jennings said
If reporters can't learn to be "objective" in their 4 years of Journalism school, why go to such a school in the first place?
The notion of "fair" is beyond belief. Hitler undoubtably thought he was "fair" to the Jews and Gypsies.
What a surprise. Jennings, Rather, Brokaw inserting their extremist Left Wing news into all their news stories.
I'm shocked, just shocked.
Amazing... this is exactly what George Soros wants.. he must be gloating over this right now...
These "journalists" , like many of our elected "leaders" are elitest snobs. They instinctively feed us "what we need."
When they stop doing this it is no longer news, it is PROPOGANDA and COMMENTARY!
He's probably coordinating it!
The thing I love about FR is that stories and articles are posted or linked in their original form and commentary follows. That allows a real exercise of critical thinking. Media folk like Jennings cloak themselves in meaningless words like Objective and fair when they are neither. And BTW FR provides an antithesis to his belief that people tailor their news to suit their opinions. We post and read all news and critique it using our knowledge, evidence and viewpoint. I dare say most readers and posters on FR are more conversant with the leftist point of view than most readers of Salon or DU, or ABC.
With the primary aim of benefitting themselves.
The MSM say's that the mistake that Dan Rather and CBS made on The National guard story was that they were sloppy because of over aggressiveness and overzealousness.
The point isn't that they were sloppy, it is that they would never have aggressively gone after a story like this against a Democrat.
TRANSLATION;“Limbaugh and the internet junkies are making us look like chumps. That 'friggin FOXNews is '$hittin in our sandbox! Lets get back the White house and close down the lot of them!”
"I'm a little concerned about this notion everybody wants us to be objective," Jennings said.
Outrageous! My old J-school professor must be rolling in his grave. Yes, back then they still taught objectivity and if Dr. Morgan caught a whiff of bias or thought you'd sexed-up a story at the expense of the truth you got an F...no questions asked. He'd almost always lop the last sentence/ graph off a story because that's where the reporter's opinion usually creeps in.
Kerry's got his "nuisance" and now Jennings has got his "notion"...what a couple of elitist twits.
From the Code of Ethics (Society of Prof. Journalists)
"Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context. "
For more- see this site:http://www.spj.org/ethics_code.asp
Surprise, surprise....It's not him and his other leftists journalists. It's the "way we ingest news" making it all of our faults. Another reason I won't watch network news.
"I'm Joe Blow, ABC News. This report is presented through my personal liberal prism. I personally want to see John Kerry elected.
On the campaign trail today...."
ABC (Always Believe Communists) needs to become intellectually honest and file as a 527 organization. Jennings "swinging through" battleground states? Please change to "Jennings campaigning for Senator Kerry through the battleground states".
Yeah yeah...and he's dumping mercury in the drinking water, dumping herbicides all the forests and plans to nuke Missouri, too.
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