Posted on 10/20/2004 6:28:43 AM PDT by MindBender26
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- ABC news anchor Peter Jennings said he's getting an earful on media coverage.
Jennings is on a swing through battleground states, including Iowa and Missouri, where polls show the race could go either to President George W. Bush or Sen. John Kerry.
Jennings gets questions about a CBS report on Bush's National Guard service, for which CBS news anchor Dan Rather later apologized and said the story was a mistake. He's also asked about Sinclair Broadcasting's decision to air a controversial documentary on Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam war record. Another big question regards an ABC internal memo from the political director suggesting that reporters need not "reflexively" hold both sides of the presidential election "equally" accountable.
Jennings said the media is now under the hot lights.
"I'm a little concerned about this notion everybody wants us to be objective," Jennings said.
Jennings said that everyone -- even journalists -- have points of view through which they filter their perception of the news. It could be race, sex or income. But, he said, reporters are ideally trained to be as objective as possible.
"And when we don't think we can be fully objective, to be fair," the anchorman said.
Does the public think network news is fair? There are a number of opinion polls that show news consumers feel that the media does have a slant.
Jennings maintains those polls may be driven by groups with an agenda.
"There's a whole industry of conservatives saying, 'Ah, it's those damn liberals,' and a whole group of liberals saying, 'It's all those damn conservatives,'" Jennings said.
The problematic response, Jennings said, is the way people tailor the way they consume news.
"If you tailor your news viewing, as some people are now doing, so that you only get one point of view, well of course you're going to think somebody else has got a different point of view, and it may be wrong," Jennings said
If reporters can't learn to be "objective" in their 4 years of Journalism school, why go to such a school in the first place?
The notion of "fair" is beyond belief. Hitler undoubtably thought he was "fair" to the Jews and Gypsies.
What a surprise. Jennings, Rather, Brokaw inserting their extremist Left Wing news into all their news stories.
I'm shocked, just shocked.
Amazing... this is exactly what George Soros wants.. he must be gloating over this right now...
These "journalists" , like many of our elected "leaders" are elitest snobs. They instinctively feed us "what we need."
When they stop doing this it is no longer news, it is PROPOGANDA and COMMENTARY!
He's probably coordinating it!
The thing I love about FR is that stories and articles are posted or linked in their original form and commentary follows. That allows a real exercise of critical thinking. Media folk like Jennings cloak themselves in meaningless words like Objective and fair when they are neither. And BTW FR provides an antithesis to his belief that people tailor their news to suit their opinions. We post and read all news and critique it using our knowledge, evidence and viewpoint. I dare say most readers and posters on FR are more conversant with the leftist point of view than most readers of Salon or DU, or ABC.
With the primary aim of benefitting themselves.
The MSM say's that the mistake that Dan Rather and CBS made on The National guard story was that they were sloppy because of over aggressiveness and overzealousness.
The point isn't that they were sloppy, it is that they would never have aggressively gone after a story like this against a Democrat.
TRANSLATION;“Limbaugh and the internet junkies are making us look like chumps. That 'friggin FOXNews is '$hittin in our sandbox! Lets get back the White house and close down the lot of them!”
"I'm a little concerned about this notion everybody wants us to be objective," Jennings said.
Outrageous! My old J-school professor must be rolling in his grave. Yes, back then they still taught objectivity and if Dr. Morgan caught a whiff of bias or thought you'd sexed-up a story at the expense of the truth you got an F...no questions asked. He'd almost always lop the last sentence/ graph off a story because that's where the reporter's opinion usually creeps in.
Kerry's got his "nuisance" and now Jennings has got his "notion"...what a couple of elitist twits.
From the Code of Ethics (Society of Prof. Journalists)
"Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context. "
For more- see this site:http://www.spj.org/ethics_code.asp
Surprise, surprise....It's not him and his other leftists journalists. It's the "way we ingest news" making it all of our faults. Another reason I won't watch network news.
"I'm Joe Blow, ABC News. This report is presented through my personal liberal prism. I personally want to see John Kerry elected.
On the campaign trail today...."
ABC (Always Believe Communists) needs to become intellectually honest and file as a 527 organization. Jennings "swinging through" battleground states? Please change to "Jennings campaigning for Senator Kerry through the battleground states".
Yeah yeah...and he's dumping mercury in the drinking water, dumping herbicides all the forests and plans to nuke Missouri, too.
Well, what say we give ABC's chain a yank...
E-mail World "News" Tonight at: NETAUDR@abc.com
Slanted, but fair - the latest MSM oxymoron...
Is Jennings a member?
Jennings was one of those talking heads who refused to wear a flag lapel pin as a show of solidarity after 9/11/01, because it would ruin his objectivity.
The end is hopefully near. They have been pretending that having 90% Democrats in a newsroom or university administration was of no consequence because they were trained to be objective. Hopefully this is a sign the cat will be officially out of the bag and even the nonpolitical savvy will see they are being manipulated.
We can lie if we want...relativism is killing our coun try. Go back to Canada Peter!
What a whiner!
Isn't it awful that the audience can actually make choices these days about news they consume? Just about any choice one makes will no longer peg the meter to the Left as it did in the MSM heydays!
Too bad, Petah!
HF
Jennings, Rather and Brokaw no longer hold the franchise.
The newsreader (Jennings, Brokaw, or Rather) would announce something along the lines of how people are hurting (almost always during a Republican admin) over name your subject etc. and now we go to Anywhere U.S.A. for a report about how people are hurting concerning whatever. The first person interviewed would be moaning and whining about something, many times mentioning how some cut in some gov program was hurting them. Then they'd interview someone from the admin saying the opposite.
Then the last soundbite would always be the original person being interviewed or some liberal or far-left hack who commiserated with the interviewee. That would also be the opinion of the network doing the "objective" report. Then the reporter would end the interview with a sad face confirming for everyone how the nasty, anti-poor, tax cut had hurt this average American and millions like him or her. And of course the newsreader would look thoughtful and caring as the reporter concluded his or her misinformation. That's how they've done it for many years and still do it on the Big Three.
Bump/ping for later read.
No wonder FNC's "Fair and Balanced" concept has taken off like a rocket!
Jennings, Mr. Canadian. He may be a U.S. citizen now, but he's still a Canadian in his thinking.
The non-story of Kerry's SF180 is proof of this...
"The main business of the Press, supposedly is news."
"....the newspapers print an awful lot of phoney news. News is what the Press produces. Most of the world's "news" is manufactured by the press itself...."
"A large part of the Press has in effect abandoned the pretence of dealing exclusively with facts." - T.S. Mathews (1959)
Beating a dead horse, I know. Old media has been dying for awhile, I'd say.
Jennings didn't finish high school, so forget about 4 years of J-school.
If you tailor your news viewing, as some people are now doing, so that you only get one point of view, well of course you're going to think somebody else has got a different point of view, and it may be wrong," Jennings said
Exactly. When the public caught on to the liberal slant--and found they had a choice with internet and Fox news--they voted with their feet, leaving the MSM.
Ok!!!! here is the reason the media keeps saying the country is so "divided." Because NOW they are being openly questioned about their objectivity by enough voices that are loud enogh to be heard over their propaganda. The "alphabets" (ABC,CBS, NBC) no longer have a monopoly on the news media. They no longer have the influence to dimiss those who disagree (alternative news sources) as "kooks". What we are seeing is a long overdue demise of their agenda.
"CRASH-N-BURN SNOTTY MEDIA ELITES!!"...your ratings are only going to get worse.
Jennings is describing his own viewers.
Sanctimonious liberal snot.
DUH?!
Exactly. A reporter who shows his bias or otherwise is not objective is not a reporter; he's a commentator, and should describe himself as such. I'm a reporter, and I would dare anyone who doesn't know me to correctly describe my political views by reading my news stories. Jennings, et al., couldn't say the same.
Heheh, I love the passage:
"The problematic response, Jennings said, is the way people tailor the way they consume news.
"If you tailor your news viewing, as some people are now doing, so that you only get one point of view, well of course you're going to think somebody else has got a different point of view, and it may be wrong," Jennings said."
Gee. I always felt better informed and more grounded in my beliefs when I got all my accurate news from ABC News.
BWHAAAAAHAAAAHAAAAA! Can you believe Jennings? The man believes he is a middle of the road moderate!
I'm stuned!
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