Saturday, February 28, 2009

A glimmer of hope ...

... Can Newspapers Survive? Only if they work harder to earn and maintain respect (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

... what if the critiques have merit? Goldberg's anti-media broadsides may be over the top, but his basic argument—that the liberal politics of most journalists influence media coverage, not because journalists don't strive to be objective but because their cultural milieu influences their perceptions of objectivity—has a great deal of truth to it. Few people doubt that Barack Obama got breaks from the press. And there are well-documented instances of media bias leading to sloppy reporting, with journalists all but recycling the press releases of advocacy groups on such issues as domestic violence, homelessness, or the perils of gun ownership. The press has been the target of unfair criticism, but it cannot be absolved of blame for the damage to its reputation.

2 comments:

  1. There may some truth to those critiques, but every time I hear the phrase "liberal media bias" (which BTW is also a straw man used by the right to shut their opponents down) I have to laugh, because if anything the media are mostly conservative (just as conservative voices dominate talk radio). Not necessarily because the big corporations that own them tend to be politically conservative, although that can be a factor, but conservative in the sense of avoiding risk-taking. Most media have no vision: they repeat what they're told, and not many do real investigation.

    For example: In the interests of "fairness" and trying to responsibly represent multiple viewpoints, many media outlets present opposing viewpoints—but they don't bring in the really bright ideas from people whose talking points are about great big ideas that could solve problems, instead we just get the same cant from the usual people with their well-known talking points. It's no wonder nothing seems to be moving forward. There's absolutely no risk-taking in thinking about how to fix problems, or in including thinking outside the box.

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  2. Well, I certainly agree about the lack of risk-taking, to say nothing of the lack of imagination, but having worked for a metropolitan daily for 28 years, let me say that was the only thing that was "conservative" about it. And that is conservative in the worst sense.

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