Comments on: An AP Israel bias lesson http://www.yourish.com/2007/10/18/3856 Cutting straight to the point Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:45:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Mr Bagel http://www.yourish.com/2007/10/18/3856/comment-page-1#comment-29265 Mr Bagel Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:42:16 +0000 http://www.yourish.com/2007/10/18/3856#comment-29265 Good article Merryl, the Bias of the media especially the Media conglomerates is astounding. Unfortunately, where you may have expected the 'information age' to help provide more News outlets/reporters with access to primary sources, the truth is the Media, driven by cost cutting has become lazy and simply just another consumer of News agency feeds. Each time an obviously biased article comes out of AP, Reuters, AFP and the elk instead of appearing in one paper it appears in a thousand. You wonder if sub editors are even reading the crap they print. Mr Bagel Good article Merryl, the Bias of the media especially the Media conglomerates is astounding. Unfortunately, where you may have expected the ‘information age’ to help provide more News outlets/reporters with access to primary sources, the truth is the Media, driven by cost cutting has become lazy and simply just another consumer of News agency feeds.
Each time an obviously biased article comes out of AP, Reuters, AFP and the elk instead of appearing in one paper it appears in a thousand. You wonder if sub editors are even reading the crap they print.

Mr Bagel

]]> By: Bob http://www.yourish.com/2007/10/18/3856/comment-page-1#comment-29229 Bob Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:15:10 +0000 http://www.yourish.com/2007/10/18/3856#comment-29229 Biased journalism is bad journalism, but I sometimes wonder whether rancid reporting is bad because it's biased, or biased becasue it's so bad. You point out how "infighting" causes Muslim deaths when Muslims are slaughtering the innocent, but "Israel soldiers" are fingered as the culprits who snuff Palestinian "fighters". I agree that this is clear bias, but I would also point out that journalists tend to ascribed motives to inanimate objects even when the writer isn't pushing some agenda. A case in point is a newpaper article I read some time ago in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The reporter pointed out that this was the second time an out-of-control SUV had come crashing through the doors of the newly completed symphony hall. Thenceforth, whenever my wife and I went to the little Mexican restaurant across from Bass Hall, we reminded each other to stay on the look-out for SUVs gone postal. My point (if I have one) is simply that, like that Startle-Gram reporter who ascribed recklessness to rogue SUVs, we too can make the mistake of anthropopathizing journalists. By projecting our impression of their writing, we oft credit them with rationality they don't possess. It's my considered opinion that coherent thought among journalists -- especially at the NY Times -- is an even more dubious theory than man-made global warming. (And you can take that to the bank. No bias here.) Biased journalism is bad journalism, but I sometimes wonder whether rancid reporting is bad because it’s biased, or biased becasue it’s so bad. You point out how “infighting” causes Muslim deaths when Muslims are slaughtering the innocent, but “Israel soldiers” are fingered as the culprits who snuff Palestinian “fighters”. I agree that this is clear bias, but I would also point out that journalists tend to ascribed motives to inanimate objects even when the writer isn’t pushing some agenda.

A case in point is a newpaper article I read some time ago in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The reporter pointed out that this was the second time an out-of-control SUV had come crashing through the doors of the newly completed symphony hall. Thenceforth, whenever my wife and I went to the little Mexican restaurant across from Bass Hall, we reminded each other to stay on the look-out for SUVs gone postal.

My point (if I have one) is simply that, like that Startle-Gram reporter who ascribed recklessness to rogue SUVs, we too can make the mistake of anthropopathizing journalists. By projecting our impression of their writing, we oft credit them with rationality they don’t possess. It’s my considered opinion that coherent thought among journalists — especially at the NY Times — is an even more dubious theory than man-made global warming. (And you can take that to the bank. No bias here.)

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