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The media's role
TownHall.com ^ | Tuesday, October 12, 2004 | by Thomas Sowell

Posted on 10/12/2004 3:25:25 AM PDT by JohnHuang2

A joke has President Bush and the Pope sailing down the Potomac on the Presidential yacht. The wind blows the Pontiff's cap off and it falls into the water. President Bush orders the yacht stopped, gets off and walks across the water to retrieve the Pope's cap.

The next day's headline in the New York Times reads: BUSH CAN'T SWIM.

It is hard to know whether media bias is getting worse or whether the mainstream media are just getting caught more often because of alternative sources of news like Fox News, talk radio and a growing number of Internet sites. Twenty years ago, CBS News and Dan Rather might have been able to continue to bluff their way out of the forged documents scandal because the other members of the big-three broadcast networks were unlikely to press the issue.

The biggest mistake of Dan Rather and CBS News was in not realizing that it was not 20 years ago any more.

According to the Drudge Report, an official of ABC News recently sent out a memo saying that "Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done" and that ABC News needs to "help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying" in the public interest.

Apparently none of that "We report, you decide" stuff for ABC News.

There is always a temptation for the media to go beyond the role of reporting to the dicey role of spinning -- and to do that, not just in opinion columns, but in what are presented as news reports. The front page of the New York Times is perhaps the most blatant example of editorials disguised as news reports, but by no means the only one.

A gimmick used increasingly to avoid even discussing some arguments on public issues is to focus on the emotions -- or presumed emotions -- of those making the arguments, rather than on the arguments themselves.

This gimmick was widely used in news reports of Democratic Senator Zell Miller's devastating recitation of all the anti-military votes of Senator Kerry over the years. Whether Senator Miller's facts were accurate or his conclusions logical was a question either not addressed at all or buried under discussions of his anger.

A recent New York Times review of the book about John Kerry in Vietnam -- "Unfit for Command" by John O'Neill -- simply ignores or arbitrarily dismisses the book's charges while calling O'Neill "curdled with hatred for Kerry" and having "a fixation on attacking Kerry."

Much of the mainstream media has likewise ignored or dismissed this book, without ever letting the readers or viewers know what the facts are for or against its serious charges. Twenty years ago, that would have been enough to bury it.

But, again, it is not 20 years ago any more. The Internet, talk radio and Fox News made enough people aware of this book that the big three broadcast networks and the New York Times could no longer continue indefinitely to act as if it didn't exist. Not without losing more of their own credibility.

This is not to say that bias in the mainstream media has been completely neutralized. Lots of people still depend on CBS, ABC and NBC for their news and still regard the New York Times as the paper with high journalistic standards that it once was.

The same media gimmick of turning questions of fact into questions of emotion is still being used as a way of avoiding inconvenient arguments by focusing on the person making charges instead of on the substance of the charges themselves.

Thus critics of the public schools are accused of "bashing" teachers. Criticisms of Dan Rather are explained away by the fact that conservatives have long been "hostile" to Dan Rather.

It may well be true that many Jews have been bitter against Hitler. But does that prove that the Holocaust never happened?

Emotions neither prove nor disprove facts. There was a time when any rational adult understood this. But years of dumbed-down education and emphasis on how people "feel" have left too many people unable to see through this media gimmick.

But, then, that can be dismissed as "bashing" the schools.

CORRECTION: In a recent column, I stated that 20 percent of the meat sold in Nairobi, Kenya, was bush meat poached from a nature preserve owned by Wildlife Works of Sausalito and that this group was the source of that estimate. That was incorrect. The estimate was not from Wildlife Works, and the 20 percent estimate applied to bush meat from various parks, preserves or other sources in Kenya combined.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: mediabias; thomassowell

1 posted on 10/12/2004 3:25:25 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
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To: JohnHuang2
Emotions neither prove nor disprove facts. There was a time when any rational adult understood this. But years of dumbed-down education and emphasis on how people "feel" have left too many people unable to see through this media gimmick. But, then, that can be dismissed as "bashing" the schools.

Once again, Dr.Sowell nails down a subject with a few concise words.

2 posted on 10/12/2004 3:51:22 AM PDT by backhoe (Just a Keyboard Cowboy, ridin' the Trackball into the Dawn of Information...)
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To: JohnHuang2
Criticisms of Dan Rather are explained away by the fact that conservatives have long been "hostile" to Dan Rather.
. . . which is nothing more than a smear to distract the reader from the possiblity that "hostility" to Dan Rather might be a rational response to the facts.

3 posted on 10/12/2004 5:31:08 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: JohnHuang2
The fact that we're here reading and reacting to this demonstrates the power of the NEW media. Viva la revolucion!
4 posted on 10/12/2004 6:55:40 AM PDT by Mojave Mark
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To: backhoe; JohnHuang2; staytrue; kristinn; hellinahandcart; NYC GOP Chick

I saw part of the Capital Report last night. I almost never watch it.

They had a Mr. Kalb on (head of the Shorenstein center), David Brock, some guy from the Media Research Center and the liberal hosts Gloria Borger and Alan Murray. There was another person but I forget who.

The discussion wound around to Helperin's memo. The question was asked if there was anything wrong in what ABC did. All (except the MRC guy) said there was nothing wrong with the ABC memo.

I sat there utterly amazed that these people were not even aware of their own bias to the extent that they could not see what was wrong with the memo.

I've got it on tape. Amazing.


5 posted on 10/12/2004 6:58:03 AM PDT by sauropod (Hitlary: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.")
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To: JohnHuang2
I wonder where this election would be if the facts were reported instead of all this emotional spin? Hey, if they want emotion, they would be reporting on the joy of the Afghanis or Iraqis or the woman who called Hugh Hewitts show yesterday who was so upset because she lost a son in the war and was angry at Kerry for calling her sons death useless. It is not facts they want...not emotion...it is socialism!!! Remember what a huge part the media played in spreading communism! The MSM is marching in lockstep.
6 posted on 10/12/2004 7:09:34 AM PDT by Woogit
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To: sauropod
Crap like this makes me wish I were back at my old job. A few years ago, the nitwitted leftists there labeled me as an "extreme right-winger" because not only did I not accept Paul Krugman as an authoritative source, but I also refused to agree that the NY Slimes is unbiased and reputable. Of course, this was well before Jayson Blair.

Then again, I was dealing with people who, back in 2001, believed that if for some reason Cheney left office, that Newt Gingrich would automatically become Vice President. First, they wrongly assumed that the Speaker of the House moves up to VP. Then, I had to prove to them that Gingrich had been out of office for more than 2 years and that a fellow by the name of Denny Hastert was now Speaker.

7 posted on 10/12/2004 4:35:05 PM PDT by NYC GOP Chick (Kerry has more positions than the Kama Sutra)
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To: NYC GOP Chick

Typical Noo Yawkers ;-).


8 posted on 10/13/2004 3:35:20 AM PDT by sauropod (Hitlary: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.")
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
Criticisms of Dan Rather are explained away by the fact that conservatives have long been "hostile" to Dan Rather.

I watched colmes attempt to smear Sinclair by revealing that their executives give to R's. As if CBS et al don't give to D's.

9 posted on 10/13/2004 3:45:32 AM PDT by ez (TERRORISTS FOR KERRY!!!)
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To: JohnHuang2
The media's role? I'm at a loss for words...

Still working on this one ;^)

FGS

10 posted on 10/13/2004 3:56:03 AM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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To: JohnHuang2

Great post!


11 posted on 03/03/2005 1:33:42 PM PST by jcb8199
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