[CAPITALISMMAGAZINE.COM] Media bias is no longer news. Poll after poll has shown that the vast majority of journalists vote for Democrats, even though the country as a whole is pretty evenly split between the two major parties. Posted on 12/18/2001 5:34:21 PM PST by Jean S
Media bias in editorials and columns is one thing. Media fraud in reporting "facts" in news stories is something else.
Media Fraud
By Thomas Sowell (December 19, 2001)
[CAPITALISMMAGAZINE.COM] Media bias is no longer news. Poll after poll has shown that the vast majority of journalists vote for Democrats, even though the country as a whole is pretty evenly split between the two major parties.
By itself, there is nothing wrong with this. It becomes a problem when media bias becomes media fraud. Media bias in editorials and columns is one thing. Media fraud in reporting "facts" in news stories is something else.
Three excellent and devastating new books on media fraud have been published this year, naming names and turning over rocks to show what is crawling underneath. These books are "Coloring the News" by William McGowan, "Bias" by Bernard Goldberg, and "It Ain't Necessarily So" by David Murray, Joel Schwartz and S. Robert Lichter.
In even the best known and most prestigious media outlets -- The New York Times and "60 Minutes," for example -- crucial facts have been left out of news stories when those facts would have undermined or destroyed a liberal argument. Conversely, false claims have been widely reported as facts in the media when those claims supported the liberal vision of the world.
A classic media fraud was the 1996 story of a wave of arsons directed against black churches by racists. It made headlines across the country and was featured on network television news. It sparked indignant editorials and angry outbursts from black activists. The President of the United States recalled his own sadness as a child at the burning down of black churches in Arkansas.
In the end, however, the whole thing turned out to be completely false. Those few journalists who bothered to check out the facts found that there were no facts to support this story and that what facts there were completely refuted it. Even a commission appointed by President Clinton reached the same conclusion. Moreover, not a single black church in Arkansas had burned down during Bill Clinton's childhood.
When this front page fraud was finally exposed, the new story was buried as a small item back on page 20 of The New York Times.
William McGowan's "Coloring the News" offers the best explanation for such journalistic malpractice. Many news organizations have created special editorial office caucuses consisting exclusively of black, Hispanic, feminist, or homosexual journalists, who decide how the news about their respective constituencies will be reported -- or whether it will be reported at all.
For example, when a homosexual man was attacked and killed by anti-gay hoodlums, that was huge, front-page news across the country. But when two homosexuals lured a boy next door into their home and then raped and killed him, at about the same time, that was widely ignored, as if it had never happened. Similarly biased treatment has appeared when it came to reporting on corrupt black politicians like D.C. Mayor Marion Barry or the dangerous double standards used for women in the military -- standards which have already led to death in training and may cost still more lives in actual combat.
The issue is not what various journalists or news organizations' editorial views are. The issue is the transformation of news reporting into ideological spin, along with self-serving taboos and outright fraud.
While William McGowan's book seems the most perceptive of these three, all are very valuable and each has its own special emphasis. "It Ain't Necessarily So" focuses on media irresponsibility when reporting on medical and scientific issues, while "Bias" focuses more on the actions and the cast of characters at CBS News, where its author worked for many years. But all three of these books provide a real education on media fraud, which is infinitely more important than media bias.
Democratic nations are especially vulnerable to misinformation. The media in a totalitarian country may tell as many lies as it wants to, but that does not affect the decisions made for the country by its dictator or its ruling party, which has access to the truth, even if the masses do not. But, in a country where the masses choose their leaders and influence policies, a fraudulent press can mislead the voters into national disaster.
But I thought it was their "right" to have free speech and tell us what ever they think will lead us to their solution: Socialism. Now if we protest they all are hurt and whiny.
Unlike Viet Nam, when the inevitable reverses that occur in war time were reported immediately, in your living room for the 6 PM news every day, advances or retreats are only made known when success was already assured, and the objectives secured. When this country acquires a politically reliable print and electronic reporting, with media members who know and understand the ethics of war, they may once again accompany our troops, being the witnesses to history as it unfolds. Until then, they are limited to being news-release readers.
By itself, there is nothing wrong with this. It becomes a problem when media bias becomes media fraud. Media bias in editorials and columns is one thing. Media fraud in reporting "facts" in news stories is something else.
Sowell admits his bias and he doesn't pretend to be a news reporter.
"The media" is a difficult thing to get your hands around. I like to define more specific terms:
-Journalism, which is the nonfiction entertainment format which relies on short deadlines (and thus of superficial writing) as a critical element of its ability to attract attention.Commentary declares (or at least invites the reader to learn) its perspective. Journalism declares, falsely, that it has no perspective. The perspective of journalism is anticonservatism.-Commentary, which is editorials and other admittedly opinion-based discussion
I have been a long time fan of this man! He says it like it is and he is extremely knowledgeable!
Perhaps I should have worded it differently. I was speaking of the media in general when I spoke of the "dark profession", not economics. I realize that Sowell is an economics professor, but I didn't mean to imply anything about economics.
I read Sowell often. His column shows up here about once a week. While more than half the columnists are pretty far to the left, Sowell stays the course of common sense.
I would suggest not only "can" but "has" led America into national disaster in the case of the Clinton Crime Gang and its responsibility, culpability, for the Sept 11th attack on our nation and the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans. As horrible as that is, however, the holacaust of the abortion deaths of innocent babies - in the multiplied millions - the fraudulent press has its hands quite bloody in that disaster as well - refusing to print the truth about abortion and the risks to women in that "PROCEDURE" all the while purporting to be supporting of "women's rights" - but denying women the fundamental right to KNOW everything they risk and everything they will experience by undergoing that procedure and ending the life of their unborn child! Disaster is an understatement for what has occurred and what is going to occur due to the active determined fraud of those who operate the press. Why can they not be sued for fraud?????
Where it all ends is financial collapse and totalitarianism. It isn't pretty.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.