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

Media Research Center, via email | 6-6-03

[Paul Atreides]

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

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Major whining alert!

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[NormsRevenge]

I'll take opinion-based over agenda-driven, anyday. Get a life, NBC!

[Lost Highway]

Two words: de nile

[joebuck]

Dudes, get a clue. The success of Fox News is a result of popular mistrust and widespread disgust with the liberal bias of all three network news broadcasts. (and CNN too.)

[Jay D. Dyson]

Having dealt directly with the press on several occasions (Associated Press, Forbes, Time, et al), I speak from experience that the press rarely gets things right. By the time the ink hits the print, one innocuous remark can be cited out of context and blown totally out of proportion.

The only time I ever deliberately issued an incendiary remark to the press, it was never printed. Go figure.

-Jay

(The incendiary remark was thus -- Q: "Do you think Americans should be concerned about terrorists knocking out the power grid?" A: "Nah. Gray Davis has been doing a splendid job of that all by himself.")

[GOPJ]

Four people leave the New York Times under an ethical black cloud and conservatives are to blame? Four people who worked for the most important LIBERAL paper?

The other "journalist" drummed out for ethical indiscretion in the last few years have also be LIBERALS.

And it's our fault? NBC's not playing with a full deck.

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.

[TYVets]

Interesting post, i would have not known about this watching nbc,,,, never watch it !

[Tacis]

Paul, if the NBC news was going to annoy you that much, why not do what millions of us have already done: don't watch it! If you watch any of the three ultra-left wing anchor and aging prima-donnas, you know you are going to get anti-American, pro UN, pro Hollywood (celebs have to stick together), anti-Bush, pro-Clinton, pro-DNC, pro-affirmative action, anti-Christian bias. Why watch that kind of liberal untruth if what you want is news?

[suzyq5558]

To NBC: whatever...................

[Pres Raygun]

I cringe everytime I see FAIR quoted or interviewed for a story on media bias. FAIR is so far to the left that when they see stories favoring the Clintons they hold those stories up as examples of a right wing bias in the media.

[Paul Atreides]

Check the source, please. This is an article from Media Research Center. Nowhere do I state that I watch NBC news, which I don't.

[RAT Patrol]

With opinion-based news you usually get honesty. Then you only need to worry about balance. Are all sides representated by a REAL representative of that political view? What gets me are the liars who pretend to be fair or "moderate" and then always pimp for only their political side.

I don't really see how you can be in the news business and stay opinion free. We are all human. That's why a good paper (or whatever media outlet) would make sure that they are staffed with persons from a wide variety of political backgrounds and ideologies (and I don't mean a black liberal, a white liberal, a gay liberal, a female liberal, a hispanic liberal, a rich liberal, a poor liberal, etc....and maybe one moderate for "balance").

[Uncle Hal]

Folks the mainstream media is running scared. The Dems realize the advent of talk radio, internet and FNC hurt them bad in the last election. They are striking back. With the exception of Fox all of the major sources of news is in the hip pocket of the Dems. So they want to demonise Fox to make them look bad. There is not much they can due about the internet and talk radio, at least for now. Be very alert for any censorship attempt on the internet and talk radio.

[GOPJ]

Short, sweet and to the point:

To NBC: whatever...................

[GOPJ]

Short, sweet and to the point:

To NBC: whatever...................

[Ohioan]

A good example of the Leftist "Big Lie" technique, used by the Bolsheviks as their stock-in-trade, and perfected by Hitler, it has always been the fall back answer, whenever the American Left is in trouble.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[Dolphy]

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

No, FNC is not responsible for opinion-based journalism, they are responsible for a different opinion in major news networks. This is such a silly argument anyway. If you line up 4 witnesses to an accident you will likely get 4 different accounts. I suppose a journalist is supposed to give equal weight to each but had that been happening I doubt FNC would have gained the audience they have.

[kevkrom]

The incendiary remark was thus -- Q: "Do you think Americans should be concerned about terrorists knocking out the power grid?" A: "Nah. Gray Davis has been doing a splendid job of that all by himself."

Gee... that sounds like perfectly-packaged sound bite to me. I guess the media hacks couldn't digest it though.

[Nick Danger]

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."

Strictly speaking, Avila is correct. Credibility of the media has indeed been undercut by the Fox News Channel.

That's because the public can now tell, by comparing the news on Fox with the news everywhere else, that "everywhere else" has been consistently promoting news stories to serve a liberal agenda, while ignoring actual happenings.

Fox does it too, but it hypes and ignores different things than the other guys. So someone watching both can, for the first time, see media bias in action. Back when every channel you could get was lying the same way, it was only by accident that you would ever find out that they were all lying.

The Iraq war was the perfect example. We were losing horribly, on every channel but Fox. It was nothing but quagmires and setbacks on the "network news," in the New York Times, and on the covers of Time and Newsweek, and just about anywhere else you looked.

But if you watched Fox, we were storming toward Baghdad. And you could see it live, right on TV. Here come the tanks, driving right up to the Presidential Palace in Baghdad. Here's the Fox reporter, standing right in front of the Presidential Palace. Flip over to CNN, CBS, NBC -- take your pick -- and there's Baghdad Bob and Peter Arnett telling us how badly it's all going.

Back when all of 'em lied the same way, the average Joe couldn't tell. Now he has Fox, and he can see totally different pictures and hear totally different things, and then draw his own conclusions as to how much "credibility" he should award to the so-called mainstream media. His answer seems to be, "not much," and this greatly disturbs the liberals in the rest of the media who used to be able to tell Joe any damned thing, and have him believe it.

The people who are used to "managing the news" on behalf of the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates -- because the reporters and editors are all liberal Democrats -- find they can't do it anymore. They get caught at it, and their credibility suffers. Oh, cry me a river.