Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Let's Talk Bias

Let's be honest, the media's true bias is sensationalism and newness. Nothing gets under my skin more than the "Liberal media bias" strawman, and apparently I'm not the only one. Even Fox News' Shepard Smith (that's right, Fox) is tired of the ridiculousness of this scapegoat:



Source: mediamatters.org

The long-term goals of the right wing's attacks on the media: to delegitimize an Obama presidency in the eyes of many Americans, and to browbeat journalists into covering an Obama administration much more critically than they otherwise would.

Whether those goals are met depends in part on whether journalists take the attacks seriously, or recognize them as the predictable continuation of a right-wing work-the-refs strategy that is so fraudulent it even involved claiming the media were devoting insufficient attention to Monica Lewinsky. And it depends in part on whether progressives push back on the bogus narrative that the media handed Obama the election, or simply ignore it.

Source: www.politico.com

In efforts to look balanced at all costs this campaign's coverage and even fact checkers have been too often awash with false equivalence and balance for the sake of balance, neither of which honor truth in an effort to not be labeled or discounted. If there are 3 Factual stories breaking that are unflattering toward one candidate and only 1 Factual story unflattering toward the other, there is no integrity in airing one and one for the sake of a false balance. Tell the truth. That is the job. That is the responsibility. As the journalist says,
"Imposing artificial balance on this reality would be a bias of its own....when journalists try so hard to avoid accusations of favoritism it clouds critical judgment. A good example were stories suggesting Palin held her own or even won her debate against Joe Biden when it seemed obvious she was simply invoking whatever talking points she had at hand, hanging on for dear life."

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