Posted on 02/10/2005 9:36:43 AM PST by Purple GOPer
Bias – The Issue – has become the great red herring of political argument.
But it's worse and more serious than just a distraction, albeit an obnoxious one. The omnipresent charge of bias has become an embedded obstacle to normal give and take about politics, culture and current events. The word-weapon "bias" is now a structural bar to communication and dialogue between people who don't belong to the same right-thinking affinity group.
~snip~
While we all aren't promiscuous bias-blamers, this is no caricature of what it's like for many people who are involved in politics, working at universities, journalists or just curious people who get into arguments for fun.
I guarantee that some percentage of readers by this point will already be sending me irate e-mails saying: (a) Of course Meyer is trying to rationalize away the bias issue because he works for CBS News and is a living breathing epitome of liberal bias, or; (b) Of course Meyer is trying to rationalize away the bias issue because he is a tool of MSM (mainstream media) and corporate pawn of the evil multinational, Viacom.
~SNIP~
When people talk about bias explicitly, they mostly talk about media bias. Thirty years ago, the prevailing theme was a sort of Marxist analysis that all Big Media had an inevitable pro-capitalist, Neanderthal bias. That view shrunk to the margins and the dominant complaint now is that Big Media has a liberal bias, which mostly means pro-Democratic. However, I now get accused of being biased almost as much by the left as the right, but the e-mail from the left is now meaner.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
1) He is admitting that the left is now meaner than the right.
2) Somebody at CBS is finally admitting that they are biased and the "neutral media" is a myth.
And CBS lies.
"I now get accused of being biased almost as much by the left as the right, but the e-mail from the left is now meaner."
When you pick sides, you open yourself up to criticism for not taking the 'correct' side or for not taking it zealously enough.
Yawnnnnnn...another non denial, denial of bias.
EVERYONE in biased.
But that's not the criticism directed towards the MSM as a whole or CBS specifically. The criticism is that the media as a whole is biased. It's not bad that Dan Rather is biased left, but that everyone at CBS is biased left.
Myer cries crocodile tears at the prospect of never being able to rid one's self of bias, but that's the real "red herring" here; conservatives aren't worried about one man's bias, we're concerned that it's portrayed as every man's bias.
Blah blah blah...if you disagree with me you're stupid.....blah blah blah.
The part I agree with is that in critiquing someone's performance in a major endeavor like journalism or judging, you have got to move past pointing out bias or activism, respectively. Ultimately, you have to show why the reporting was bad, wrong, or misleading. You have to show why the decision was incorrect on the merits.
I am biased....very.
Not the right ones ;)
Hey Dick, I liked your column about bias on the cbsnews.com website. It was nice and light and refreshing. I do think, however, you could have mentioned how News programming is supposed to be objective, and distinguished that from Opinion reporting. That is an important point that seems to be lost on many people, and can be camouflaged in debate to disguise an inherent bias and pull the wool over the eyes of the terminally stupid. My internal bias, however, shows me how CBS News is completely biased in favor of the Democrat party agenda, and strongly biased against Republican people and points of view. That is crystal clear to me, and I hope you can admit that to yourself. You can always go back a few months or years and read the daily DNC talking points, and follow your news articles from a few hours or days later and see the mimicry. Nonetheless as CBS News sinks deeper and deeper into the realm of obscurity and irrelevance, you can always pretend to show how fair you are to both sides of the debate. Note to self: sell Viacom, it is aligned with a sinking ship. But all the best to you, don't take it personally, Dick, you are a great writer. Cheers!
That is why journalists like it.I mean that journalists turn any challenge of their objectivity into a straw man. For them there is no middle ground between being objective and being biased, and the moment you decline to accept their version of "the way it is" (as Walter Cronkite used to put it) you are not debated on the particular merits but are charged with accusing them of evil "bias."
The truth seems to be that there is no operational difference between claiming to be "objective" and claiming to be wise. If you claim to be wise, you reject the idea of listening to the "unwise" arguments of your inferiors. Likewise, if you claim to be "objective" you reject the idea that your own personal perspective can be distinguished from the general welfare. Whoever heard of "unwise objectivity?"
The insight of "philosophy" - the word means, "the love of wisdom" - is that claiming to be wise makes you arrogant and foolish. Whoso would criticize another for not being objective must also admit that their own perspective has a name - otherwise they are implicitly claiming objectivity and wisdom for themselves.
And, frankly, the writer of this piece makes a point of pride of being attacked by conservative and radical critics, insinuating that his perspective is therefore the golden mean. I see nothing in it which admits that his own perspective has a name.
Certainly. But then again it is possible to present the best arguements from both sides and let the reader decide. That never happens though.
What?!?! Are you suggesting his article has no "gravitas"?!?!
But it's worse and more serious than just a distraction, albeit an obnoxious one. The omnipresent charge of bias has become an embedded obstacle to normal give and take about politics, culture and current events. The word-weapon "bias" is now a structural bar to communication and dialogue between people who don't belong to the same right-thinking affinity group.
It's the old symptom of ignore the man behind the curtain. For one thing he fails to apply significance to the influence of the Media.
Worse. No legitimacy either.....
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