When Media Bias Slaps You In The Face

It Makes It Harder To Ignore

By Adam C Posted in Comments (13) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Via Taranto, comes this recent anecdote. Will Bunch, a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News, writes

Even if the report [was] wrong, and I'm not convinced that it is, it was in the context of horrific--and demonstrably true--escalating violence in Baghdad. . . .

In fact, it's almost not worth swatting at these gnats from the 101st Fighting Keyboard Commandos. I'd rather just concede, and let them have as their main talking points on the Middle East: The fact that smoke was added to a picture of a real Israeli bombing of Lebanon, that the AP printed an incorrect story about one of the hundreds of deadly acts of sectarian violence in Iraq, and even the allegation--totally unproven and not resulting in any actual charges--that one Iraqi photographer who has worked with the AP has ties to the insurgents.

For our main talking points that the Iraq war is immoral and that U.S. involvement needs to end, we'll take the lies about weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's ties to al-Qaeda that didn't exist, and the unrelentingly sad fact that more than 2,900 Americans and tens upon tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have now died in an unnnecessary [sic] civil war, all for this mistake.

And people wonder why most of the public does not trust journalists to be impartial. When reporters have "talking points" and liberals are overrepresented by large margins, it doesn't take a genius to realize that there is a credibility problem. Hopefully new media will help level the playing field, but until then we should be putting pressure on news rooms to stick to the facts and leave talking points to the activists and politicians.

Also, if you happen to be a reporter reading this and you want to be an op-ed writer, please make the switch. Staying at the "news" desk only hurts your paper and your credibility.

« We need more COIN in the Afghan realmComments (0) | Thank you, AlgoreComments (12) »
When Media Bias Slaps You In The Face 13 Comments (0 topical, 13 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »

I particularly loved the part about the army not being interested in accuracy but reporters faking news were trying to get the truth.

From what I can attytood.com is a blog that Will Bunch started.

Now clearly it is slanted but I'm not sure why this is such a big deal of anything.

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were and ask why not." George Bernard Shaw

the media publishing false information and fake news because it blosters their "talking points." And he writes for the Daily News which purports to be a reputable "news" source. Or according to the American Prospect, he is a "senior writer" for the Daily News.

Yes, when a senior writer at a newspaper admits that they have "talking points" about the "immorality" of something, it should be pointed out.

If a random Fox reported said they had "talking points" about the immorality of homosexuality, it would make the NYT editorial page and a lot of other news sources.

Social Security Choice - Club For Growth

I guess I just don't see the fact that reporters use talking points as being a big deal, no matter what their affiliation.

Most of them aren't all that smart. They need guides to help them along.

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were and ask why not." George Bernard Shaw

This is the reporter's talking points. Any reporter who goes into a story with his own talking points he wants to present, he is an op-ed writer not a reporter.

Social Security Choice - Club For Growth

claiming to be standard bearers without bias or agenda reporting "just the fact ma'am" to the unsuspecting American people, who are in fact cold-hearted partisans advancing a specific agenda is a problem?

Sorry, if you can't see that, I'm not sure there's anyone anywhere who can help.

the kind that should be pickled, jarred, and placed over the fire place. There being more than enough diseased brains available for Harvard Medical School, most of them former faculty members, decorative purposes in the Post Modern age may be seriously considered. If not there's always dog food.

Can't rehash all the answers to Mr Bunch's cranial ejaculations, Salman Park, cash payments to Palestinian families of murderers, Clinton and Gore making the same WMD statements, with the same CIA. Will it ever end?

Mr Bunch is probably angling for a job in the new Democratic power structure, something suitable to his talents, like office paperweight or doormat.

"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville

The Mainstream Media is where all the power of liberalism emanates.

With the Networks, Newspapers, Cable News, Hollywood, etc, I'm often amazed Republicans win any elections.

I am hopeful the New Media will help balance things more and more in the future.

But if the MSM if ever taken down, Liberalism will be finished.

I've often wondered if it would make more sense for Conservatives to pool their money together and purchase these institutions, rather than donating money to political candidates.

With the total amount of money Republicans spend in an election cycle, it would almost make more sense to instead gain a controlling interest in something like the Washington Post or USA Today.

Liberalism wouldn't last very long without the power of the MSM behind them.

"Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich. "

William F. Buckley, Jr.

---
Internet member since 1987
Member of the Surreality-Based Community

...why I refer to myself as a columnist, and not a journalist. I have a point of view, and have no problem with everybody knowing where I'm coming from.

If only the "news" writers would be as honest.

...has not balanced the equation. Daffyd ab Hugh is complaining about where all the paid ads have gone in the past few weeks. This site here has had far too many trolls going unanswered, and of course we have the Iraq Study Report, also known as Surrender by Any Other Name out there with all the networks talking heads cooing over it.
Remember Winston Churchill: In War; Resolution:
In Defeat; Defiance:
In Victory; Magnanimity:
In Peace; Good Will:
Any nation that is either unwilling or unable to live by these precepts will not have to worry about its freedom either, for they won't have it long. (Churchill also) We are HERE on this wartime roadmap, not having to worry about our freedom for long either.
Future historians will long ponder this amazing turn of events, how this nation which sacrificed so much of its blood and treasure during the years 1939 to 1945 to establish an almost world wide era of relative peace, could so abjectly surrender its birthright, its reason for being, so completely such a short time later.
Marshall McLuhan was right, but he didn't anticipate madmen in charge of the Global Village.

No they won't...

that will be a beheading offense.

First question from drive by media asked since the Bush Blair policy is a failure will you now admit defeat and bow down before Iran and Syria.

If you always find yourself arguing the exceptions rather than the rule you just might be rapidly sliding down your own slippery slope to irrelevance. -CommonCents

 
Redstate Network Login:
(lost password?)


©2008 Eagle Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Legal, Copyright, and Terms of Service