NBC: Conservative Bias and FNC Undermining Trust in the Media NBC Uses (Barf alert)

In the wake of the resignations of the top two editors at the New York Times, NBC News looked at declining trust in the media overall and identified two culprits: Conservative, pro- corporate bias and the Fox News Channel.

In a NBC Nightly News piece on Thursday night, reporter Jim Avila noted that "media watchdogs complain almost daily of bias, charging that some stories are deliberately ignored." His sole soundbite for that point: a representative of the far-left group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, who charged that public cynicism toward the press is fueled by "the whole corporate climate, where people feel they're being sold to rather than informed."

Then, over video of the Fox News Channel, Avila blamed it too: "And some experts say opinion-based journalism, so popular on cable TV, undercuts credibility."

As opposed to the opinion-based journalism of NBC News and the rest of the news media, as if there were no bias in the media until FNC came along a few years ago.

The June 5 NBC Nightly News led with a story by Andrea Mitchell about the resignations of Times Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd and then Tom Brokaw went to Avila in Chicago for a look at how the public views the media.

Avila began with a Spokane artist who sees routine mistakes in stories about him and then Avila recalled how "a 2002 Pew Research study shows that only 35 percent of the public trust news organizations to 'get the facts straight.'"

Next, Avila gave a soundbite to a man in restaurant who doesn't believe all he reads in newspapers and Avila confirmed he has "plenty of reasons" to think that way. Avila reminded viewers of NBC's own Dateline NBC simulated truck explosion controversy, the case of Janet Cooke at the Washington Post in 1981, Stephen Glass at the New Republic who "imagined" stories in 1998 "and Mike Barnicle's factual carelessness for the Boston Globe."

Avila didn't mention that NBC has helped rehabilitate the ethically-challenged Barnicle by making him a fill-in host and regular commentator on MSNBC.

Avila asserted: "Jayson Blair is just the latest example of journalistic fraud chipping away at an industry built on trust. How bad is it? Denver's Rocky Mountain News, a subscriber to the New York Times News Service, no longer automatically runs stories based on Times's unnamed sources." John Temple, Editor of the Rocky Mountain News: "Somehow, standards seem to erode in their newsroom." Avila turned to bias, but only saw it from the right: "But it's not just mistakes, say critics. Media watchdogs complain almost daily of bias, charging that some stories are deliberately ignored." Steve Rendell, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting: "The cynicism that people have about media isn't just about Jayson Blair and Mike Barnicle. It's about the whole corporate climate, where people feel they're being sold to rather than informed." Avila: "And some experts say opinion-based journalism, [over video of the Fox News Channel showing FNC putting its logo on screen as music played] so popular on cable TV, undercuts credibility. Viewers now charge bias against any news they don't agree with." Greg Mitchell, Editor and Publisher magazine Editor: "They often disagree with stories because they don't agree with the political outlook or the revelations that are in those stories." Avila concluded: "And journalistic missteps like those in the New York Times only give ammunition to those who believe even true stories are fiction."

While on the subject of the New York Times, three resources for evidence of the liberal bias and agenda of Howell Raines before and during his tenure as top editor of the New York Times:

-- The MRC's "Spotlight" section on Raines put together last year by the MRC's Tim Jones. You'll be able to watch video of Raines praising the wonders of Bill Clinton and complaining that "the Reagan years oppressed me" and that Reagan "couldn't tie his shoelaces if his life depended on it." See: http://www.mediaresearch.org/mrcspotlight/raines/welcome.asp

-- "Raines of Error: Howell's 21-Month Times Editorialship," an article written by TimesWatch.org Editor Clay Waters. See: http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2003/0605.asp

-- A listing of a couple of dozen articles about Raines posted over the last few years by TimesWatch.org and the MRC. See: http://www.timeswatch.org/topicindex/R/howell_raines/welcome.asp

Let's see if I understand the bizarre logic and shameless deceit of completely faked "news report.":

The NY Times, NBC, and the rest of the leftist vermin media tell lies faster than a democrat pocketing a bribe.

Fox gives fair and balanced reporting.

The public is beginning to wise up to this and flees to honest reporting, shunning the delightful aroma of the liberal open cesspool.

Voila!!! Fox is responsible for all this mistrust!!! Keep it up, you NBC morons. Don't let the door to the unemployment office hit your massive buttocks on the way out.

Dear NBC: Avila seems to have forgotten something in his "report" --- a guy named PETER ARNETT (formerly of MSNBC).

Personally, even after working for an NBC television affiliate for many years, I don't watch you anymore. (I did watch Tom Brokaw's special on President George W. Bush, which turned out quite well only because Dubya is too smart to have fallen for Brokaw's "trick questions.")

NBC, you remind me of the Dixie Chicks. You rant about the right of Free Speech but want to ignore another word that you so often abuse: CHOICE. Just like a person's breakfast cereal. Will we quit buying our favorite Quaker Shredded Wheat if you have an ad for Post Toasties that says it's better? No, we'll stick to our favorite. Will you then try to do an undercover report on the "dangers of eating Quaker Shredded Wheat" followed by that ad for Post Toasties? Yes. That's your method of "journalism." And you and ABC, CNN, CBS, PBS et al are trying to bring down FOX in the same manner. Plant a handy little "report" here and there. It has worked for you before. But we won't be fooled again!

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