The Washington Post dropped its sponsorship on Monday of a walk organized by the Pentagon to remember victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and to support US troops, saying it was possible the event would become “politicized”.
The editor of Time feels that the supposed ‘outing’ of Valerie Plame by Karl Rove is “one of the biggest stories of our time”.
The New York Times launched an investigation into the details of the adoption of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts two children. They quickly withdrew after a maelstrom of criticism.
The Guardian had to sack two of its editorial writers after it was revealed that they belonged to extremist Muslim groups. The two regularly wrote about Muslim issues without disclosing their memberships.
Reuters refuses to label the 911 hijackers as terrorists “in an internal memo reminding our journalists of our policy in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, a statement was made that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.”
That other bastion of impartiality, the BBC, banned its reporters from using the word terrorists in coverage of the 7/7 and 7/14 London bombings.
Just what is going on here? Has the world suddenly turned upside down, or has it always been this way? I understand a journalists need to be objective in reporting news, but does it have to go so far that the news loses all sense of perspective?
And do we actually believe that journalists can be completely objective? All of us are colored by our background and experience - that cannot be helped. We can certainly gain insight and broaden our horizons and even change our views, but deep down, even subconsciously, we all have a viewpoint. And it is impossible for any human to suppress that completely.
One of the regulars on GUT (guardian talk board) who is a journalist defends positions such as the BBC’s. Her take is that not calling anyone a terrorist prevents a journalist from calling someone like George Bush a terrorist.
You know what? If a journalist really thinks that Bush is a terrorist, he should say so. I want to know what this journalist is thinking. Because whether he, or anyone else believes it or not, that view is coming out all over his reporting anyway.
In the case of the two Muslims that were fired from the Guardian, I don’t have a problem with them writing for a paper and expressing their views, no matter how different they are from mine. I have a problem that they did not disclose their associations. Not that it was really that difficult to tell they had extreme views.
The New York Times is a perfect example. The paper of record has had some tough times lately. The Jason Blair fiasco is just the tip of the iceberg. I must admit my bias, having worked in advertising for many years, and being exposed to the business end of the NY Times. Quite frankly, they think their $#!t doesn’t stink. ‘Because we are the NY Times, that’s why’ would be heard over and over again. It is obvious that this arrogance comes across in both their news reporting and their editorials. But going after adoption records of two little kids is really low, even for them.
We know now that most of the press are liberals. They vote democrat overwhelmingly. They have a very thinly veiled contempt of Republicans and anyone who isn’t ‘like them’. They fall all over themselves for John Kerry and any other democrat who is running for anything.
I don’t believe in a vast ‘Jewish controlled media’ or even a ‘liberal press’. I think these people have their heads so far up their own butts that they don’t even realize their own bias. And neither did many of us until recently.
The advent of 24 hour a day news, the internet, blogs and of course – Fox news, has been a blessing. There is no longer a monopoly on the news and the viewpoint that goes along with it. IMO the more views, the better. It makes me laugh when liberals attack Fox News for being ‘conservative’ at best and the ‘Karl Rove news outlet’ at worst. Simply because Fox presents a different bent on the news they are immediately branded ‘wrong’ and dangerous. It seems the only correct viewpoint is the MSM liberal viewpoint.
So what do you think? Do you think the press can be and should be objective? Or do you want to know what their true feelings are so you can determine for yourself if what they are saying is legitimate or not?
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4 comments:
I think journalist's feet should be held to the fire any time it needs to be done, whether it is a liberal or conservative outlet - just like I enjoy seeing a politician getting nailed, be he/she Dem or Repub. Blogs and the internet I think have helped in this respect. I came here because I saw you had posted something on Neo-Neocon's blog, but then changed your mind. I was curious as to what you were going to say, hence came here to 'check you out' as they say.
I came via the same path as Goesh. Good start on your site. One observation: you might want to provide links to examples of the various charges you are making, which will allow people to verify for themselves that your point is valid. It improves your credibility as well as providing more info for those that want to get the full story. Especially since you are criticizing journalists, who frequently try to claim that we bloggers don't do fact checking.
Since you're new to blogging, if you have any questions about how to do this, feel free to drop me a line at jackofclubsblog [at] yahoo [dot] com. I don't check it every day, but I'll get back to you eventually.
Thanks for the comments, it is encouraging. I thought I had posted twice on neo-neocon's blog (which I LOVE), and that is why I deleted the second one.
And I will try to put more links. I was very frustrated in my first experience putting a link in my initial post. All other formatting (bold, Italic) is so easy, why not links? But I will get the hang of it.
I'm more used to 'flaming' as patris cattus says
Just discovered this post via your comment on Dr. Helen. I love the thoughtfulness and questions! You sound similar to my own puzzlement. Journalists should be as objective as they can - and with intellectual strength, I think most of us can put our own feelings to the side to write a story. I look forward to reading you more!
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