Posted on 08/27/2004 4:53:14 PM PDT by Huntress
Criticism of the media often hijacks the Diversity Coalition meetings at the Minority Museum.
David Shapiro brings people together to discuss ways that people in this multicultural community can better get along. But the news media have drawn a lot of fire since the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy.
People's disappointment in the fourth estate escalated this month when one person played her copy of “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism.” We'll watch the rest of it when the group reconvenes at 7 p.m. Sept. 7 at 89th Street and Wornall Road.
The film adds to the mea culpa in May by The New York Times and one this month by The Washington Post. Stories shamelessly promoting President Bush's charges that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and would use them on America made the front pages of those newspapers and others nationwide.
So did articles linking the terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Stories that challenged that information ran on the back pages of newspapers, if at all.
Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said in the Aug. 12 Post article that nationwide, “the voices raising questions about the war were lonely ones. We didn't pay enough attention to the minority.”
No joke. A media feeding frenzy built around the big story of war. The public is eating the bill in billions of dollars and in lives lost.
The “Outfoxed” film shows how that shady news network that calls itself “fair and balanced” also manipulates the information to herd the public. That's not good in a country that depends on the free press to give people news so they can make the best choices for the nation's well-being.
“The media is the nervous system of the democracy,” said Jeff Cohen, former MSNBC/Fox News contributor. “If it's not functioning well, the democracy can't function.”
“Outfoxed” quotes media watchdog groups and former staffers to show how the nation's most watched cable news network manipulates the news to get viewers to buy the conservatives' agenda. The film also shows the enormous reach of Murdoch's media holdings in newspapers, television stations, cable and satellite TV companies, and magazines.
It told how journalists at those stations regularly receive corporate directives to boost the appeal of conservative Republicans like Bush and downplay and even smear Democrats. Fox News purposefully trashes the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Sen. Ted Kennedy, the film reported. It also makes liberals look ineffectual, unappealing and wimpy.
To compete with Fox as the ratings leader, other news media are using similar “tricks” and becoming more conservative, too.
“Outfoxed” showed Bill O'Reilly, Fox News' biggest star, to be a bully. The talk show host berates guests, telling them to “shut up.” The film also pointed out how Fox “journalists” use the manipulative phrase “some say” to inject opinions into the news. “Outfoxed” showed how the network's staff must comply with corporate edicts to slant the news or face termination as well as being blackballed from the TV news industry.
All of this threatens our democracy, especially when 83 percent of Americans get most of their news from television, according to The State of the News Media 2004.
It said: “Reliance on television increases even more, according to the surveys, in times of crisis such as the war in Iraq or immediately after Sept. 11. Television use goes up and everything else seems to drop, particularly print, though the shifts are temporary.”
But like Fox, the control of the news media increasingly is concentrated in the hands of a few owners. That gives the 10 biggest companies owning 30 percent of all TV stations the ability to reach 85 percent of all television households in America, the report said.
Also, 22 newspaper companies have 70 percent of the daily circulation, 73 percent on Sundays, the report said. That diminishes the diversity in coverage, opinions and voices that the media offer in our democracy.
But people aren't stupid. Many today have less trust in the media.
“Public attitudes about the press have been declining for nearly 20 years,” the report said. “Americans think journalists are sloppier, less professional, less moral, less caring, more biased, less honest about their mistakes and generally more harmful to democracy than they did in the 1980s.”
That credibility abyss is not good for the news industry, our government or our democracy.
Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star's Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to Ldiuguid@kcstar.com.
Well, if the shoe fits. . .
I think the headline should read:
Arrogant, biased media harms democracy.
Where's the barf alert on this one????
Media to Americans: Stop mistrusting us...NOW!
The headline should read, "Media Bias Rampant - This Article Proof"
The solution is for us all to simply believe the likes of Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Blokaw?
Yeah, I should have added that to the title. Is there a way do that once the article has been posted?
I guess someone forgot to tell Leftie Lewis that the President of News Corp endorsed Kerry.
More accurate headline choices:
"Untrustworthiness of media harms democracy"
"Media bias harms democracy"
"Journalistic malpractice harms democracy"
Trust in the media is not warranted. Lack of trust is logical, and the only way democracy can survive.
I wonder if Mr. Diuguid expects me to think that he is objective?There is no need to wonder if Mr. Diuguid thinks that I am objective; I don't even claim that myself. I am a conservative, and a Republican. But the fact that Mr. Diuguid thinks that journalism is objective and, I make no doubt at all, that he himself is objective would prove that he is a propagandist.
There can be no objectivity apart from wisdom. To claim to be objective is to claim to be wise - and to claim to be wise is to be contemptuous of facts or logic.
I guess we should all just shut up and drink our Kool-Aid.
Um, Richar Clarke's statement Osama would "boogie" to Baghdad?
Send that man a mirror.
WHAT?
More like leftist commie press harms Democracy.
This is from "The Onion" right? This sounds like the speech from the editor of the Los Angeles Times a while back. In fact, it sounds a lot like Kerry speeches of late. Those nasty conservatives are questioning me.
And I didn't trust the media even in the 80s . . .
Come on now, Lewis. Have you ever watched Katie Couric, Leslie Stahl, Tim Russert, et al? Give me a break, you weasly liberal puke.
The lamestream media greased the path for my journey to the right wing around 1976 and for that, at any rate, I am eternally grateful.
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