Say Anything: MSM Navel-Gazing On The Bias Question
Rob
· 3 years ago
Good post, though I think I'd attribute this backlash against negative media reporting to President Bush bringing it up during his recent press conference more than Laura Ingrahm.
But whoever brings it up, it is a discussion this country needs to have.
realitybasedbob
· 3 years ago
What good news did Brit Hume report yesterday?
Alex Nunez
· 3 years ago
Thanks, Rob.
To be fair though, it's commentators like Laura who have been banging this drum for quite a while now. The President was wise to sieze that opportunity when it presented itself.
As you said, however, it's an important discussion to have.
That the left is unhappy about the discussion as it is says a lot. At Kos, there is much gnashing of teeth over the lack of body count coverage the last few days.
They are now saying the media in Iraq are just GOP mouthpieces. Yeah, right. Any time the left tries to drastically reinvent reality like this, it's because they feel threatened.
WOOF
· 3 years ago
Opening a school is great. Finding ten men dead in their underwear ,hands bound, holes in their heads from bullets and drill bits , behind the school is the problem and the news.
"Baghdad: The Besieged Press"
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18844
"CERTIFIED ARMORED CARS." The company's logo is a sedan with the crosshairs of an assault rifle's telescopic scope trained on the windshield on the driver's side. "WHEN GOING TO IRAQ, MAKE SURE YOU DRIVE ARMORED "
Bat One
· 3 years ago
"However, a 24 hour newscast like CNN has no excuse since they have the time to present the whole picture negative and positive."
And if their audience share gets much smaller, they can stand stand Lou Dobbs and Wolf Blitzer on their respective heads in opposite corners spitting BBs at each other and no one would notice... or care.
Moneyrunner
· 3 years ago
<ul><li>Six killed and several more wounded in Seattle by gunman.</li><li>
W
ife shoots and kills preacher husband.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Thirteen dead in Washington D.C. overnight in gang related shootout.</li></ul>
And that’s the news from America.
Rinse and repeat daily; there will be no shortage of headlines and I can do this every day.
Thought experiment: You are an Iraqi and rely on this summary of the news for your image of America. What’s your impression?
Moneyrunner
· 3 years ago
I was hoping that Woof would give us his impression. After all, this is NEWS! I wonder is NEWS has any relationship to reality?
anonymous
· 3 years ago
To teach journalists why they're reporting in Iraq is faulty, someone should put a tv camera in a journalist's bathroom and make a video about how the most important part of this person's life is sitting on the toilet. If the journalist tries to explain that his life is more than sitting on the toilet he should be answered, "but this film is real, it's about real life how can you say it is inaccurate?"
· “Insurgents and terrorists killed thousands of citizens … Using intimidation and violence, they kidnapped and killed government officials and workers, common citizens, party activists participating in the electoral process, civil society activists, members of security forces, and members of the armed forces, as well as foreigners.”
· “Bombings, executions, killings, kidnappings, shootings, and intimidation were a daily occurrence throughout all regions and sectors of society. An illustrative list of these attacks, even a highly selective one, could scarcely reflect the broad dimension of the violence.”
· “Bombings took thousands of civilian lives across the country during the year.”
· “Former regime elements, local and foreign fighters, and terrorists waged guerrilla warfare and a terrorist campaign of violence impacting every aspect of life. Killings, kidnappings, torture, and intimidation were fueled by political grievances and ethnic and religious tensions and were supported by parts of the population.”
· “Insurgents and terrorists targeted anyone whose death or disappearance would advance their cause and, particularly, anyone suspected of being connected to government-affiliated security forces.”
· “All sectors of society suffered from the continued wave of kidnappings. Kidnappers often killed their victims despite the payment of ransom. The widespread nature of this phenomenon precluded reliable statistics.”
WOOF - what's your point supposed to be? It looks like you are trying your best to prove the point of the article.
A.I.
· 3 years ago
The problem isn't "negative" stories outweighing "positive" stories. The problem is that every picture of a burning car in front of an Iraqui police recruiting center or a blown up mosque isn't just a "negative" story. The images and stories are the actual weapons of the terrorists, not the bombs themselves. It's in their handbook people! The only way the terrorists can win is to destroy the morale of the American homefront, and those images are doing just that. The MSM would be much better served if they could at least acknowlede that once in a while. Something like, "While the bombing we just showed you was accurate story unfolding in Iraq, we should remind viewers that the goal of the terrorists is precisely our displaying what we just showed you. To pretend that these things are not happeneing in Iraq would be journalistically unethical, but we do face an impossible dilemma....
Mark in Texas
· 3 years ago
The presstitutes like to excuse thier selection of stories by saying that nobody reports on the plane that lands safely. Shootings and car bombs are reported because they are unusual so that makes them news.
A shooting in Cleveland or a car bomb in New York City would certainly be unusual enough to be news, but in Iraq getting more electric power on line or getting a sewer pipe fixed so that the kids no longer play in a pond of human waste would be unusual enough that it might bear reporting.
If reporters just want to do bang bang stories, how come they don't report on soldiers being awarded a Silver Star for heroism and report on what actions earned that medal?
You know the reason as well as I do. They are not anti-war. They are rooting for the other side.
Moneyrunner
· 3 years ago
Woof makes much of the reports of violence in Iraq. It would be foolish for anyone to claim that there is no violence. That is beside the point of this discussion.
Here are the official data for violence in the US for 2004
Murder: 16,137
Rape: 94,635
Robbery: 401,326
Assault: 854,911
All violent crimes: 1,367,009
In a nation of about 300 million people, your chances of getting killed, raped, robbed or otherwise assaulted are about 1 in 200. That’s pretty high. And if the news media focused on that, and we did not know anything else about American society because we did not live here, we would conclude that America is over-run by murderers, rapists and other violent criminals. We could conclude that Americans are irredeemable and the thought of taking a vacation or traveling to such a violent place sheer insanity. And the fact is, there are people in the world who actually believe that. We call these people misinformed or foolish.
Thanks to the Internet and the fact that we have citizens on the ground who allows us to have a more complete picture of the reality in Iraq, we are not totally dependent on the incredibly narrow slice of life that the MSM present of reality in Iraq.
They say that the news media has a slogan: “if it bleeds it leads.” That does less harm in this country because we can look around us and see reality and compare it to the stories we get fed by the MSM. Although, let’s not kid ourselves, it can do harm. It caused the rescue efforts after Katrina to be slowed down.
But we are being fed pictures of an incredibly violent Iraq without any context. No images of ordinary Iraqis going about their lives. Yet they do. No people shopping, unless they have been blown up, no children playing unless they have been killed, yet we are being asked to make political decisions based on the view of Iraq through the prism of universal violence provided by a MSM that has become the propaganda arms of those who want the Islamofacists to win.
WOOF
· 3 years ago
Ordinary curfews , ordinary electriciry ,gasoline, water outages. Ordinary political leaders' assasinations, ordinary private militias, secret private jails . Ordinary bombings of markets and houses of worship.
Ordinary gang kidnappings, mass graves.
Gonna be a big spring break destination. Book early for hotels with superior blast walls, bring your kevlar vest.
likwidshoe
· 3 years ago
Gonna be a big spring break destination. Book early for hotels with superior blast walls, bring your kevlar vest.
Way to get ridiculous WOOF.
Continue ignoring the full picture. Focus only on the negative. It is what you are.
Moneyrunner
· 3 years ago
Woof, my firend - an you are my friend - what you have replied is not an argument; it's a snarky comment that exposes your intellect.
Want some more examples? Ordinary people dying of starvation, no electricity, no heat so people froze, living amidst the rubble and rampant crime. West Germany after WW2 – for several years.
Add rape and plunder and that describes East Germany under Stalin’s men.
The sad problem with most people today is that they are not aware of their own invincible ignorance. They’re taking too many self esteem courses.
Ken McCracken
· 3 years ago
Hey Woof, just trying to understand your psychology here.
People here are posting about good things going on in Iraq, and how the press ignores it.
Why do you feel the immediate need to try to counteract that with negative information about the war in Iraq?
I am really curious about what drives that. Are you trying to educate us, as if we don't know bad things are happening in Iraq?
Do you want the other side to win? I assume you don't, and would be surprised if you did want them to win - ergo, my question.
Why do you feel the need to dwell on the negative?
All Comments
Good post, though I think I'd attribute this backlash against negative media reporting to President Bush bringing it up during his recent press conference more than Laura Ingrahm.
But whoever brings it up, it is a discussion this country needs to have.
Thanks, Rob.
To be fair though, it's commentators like Laura who have been banging this drum for quite a while now. The President was wise to sieze that opportunity when it presented itself.
As you said, however, it's an important discussion to have.
That the left is unhappy about the discussion as it is says a lot. At Kos, there is much gnashing of teeth over the lack of body count coverage the last few days.
They are now saying the media in Iraq are just GOP mouthpieces. Yeah, right. Any time the left tries to drastically reinvent reality like this, it's because they feel threatened.
Opening a school is great. Finding ten men dead in their underwear ,hands bound, holes in their heads from bullets and drill bits , behind the school is the problem and the news.
"Baghdad: The Besieged Press"
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18844
"CERTIFIED ARMORED CARS." The company's logo is a sedan with the crosshairs of an assault rifle's telescopic scope trained on the windshield on the driver's side. "WHEN GOING TO IRAQ, MAKE SURE YOU DRIVE ARMORED "
"However, a 24 hour newscast like CNN has no excuse since they have the time to present the whole picture negative and positive."
And if their audience share gets much smaller, they can stand stand Lou Dobbs and Wolf Blitzer on their respective heads in opposite corners spitting BBs at each other and no one would notice... or care.
W
ife shoots and kills preacher husband.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Thirteen dead in Washington D.C. overnight in gang related shootout.</li></ul>And that’s the news from America.
Rinse and repeat daily; there will be no shortage of headlines and I can do this every day.
Thought experiment: You are an Iraqi and rely on this summary of the news for your image of America. What’s your impression?
I was hoping that Woof would give us his impression. After all, this is NEWS! I wonder is NEWS has any relationship to reality?
State Dept i“Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” · In Iraq, “A climate of extreme violence in which people were killed for political and other reasons continued.”
· “Insurgents and terrorists killed thousands of citizens … Using intimidation and violence, they kidnapped and killed government officials and workers, common citizens, party activists participating in the electoral process, civil society activists, members of security forces, and members of the armed forces, as well as foreigners.”
· “Bombings, executions, killings, kidnappings, shootings, and intimidation were a daily occurrence throughout all regions and sectors of society. An illustrative list of these attacks, even a highly selective one, could scarcely reflect the broad dimension of the violence.”
· “Bombings took thousands of civilian lives across the country during the year.”
· “Former regime elements, local and foreign fighters, and terrorists waged guerrilla warfare and a terrorist campaign of violence impacting every aspect of life. Killings, kidnappings, torture, and intimidation were fueled by political grievances and ethnic and religious tensions and were supported by parts of the population.”
· “Insurgents and terrorists targeted anyone whose death or disappearance would advance their cause and, particularly, anyone suspected of being connected to government-affiliated security forces.”
· “All sectors of society suffered from the continued wave of kidnappings. Kidnappers often killed their victims despite the payment of ransom. The widespread nature of this phenomenon precluded reliable statistics.”
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/03/harsh_reality_t.html
Something like, "While the bombing we just showed you was accurate story unfolding in Iraq, we should remind viewers that the goal of the terrorists is precisely our displaying what we just showed you. To pretend that these things are not happeneing in Iraq would be journalistically unethical, but we do face an impossible dilemma....
The presstitutes like to excuse thier selection of stories by saying that nobody reports on the plane that lands safely. Shootings and car bombs are reported because they are unusual so that makes them news.
A shooting in Cleveland or a car bomb in New York City would certainly be unusual enough to be news, but in Iraq getting more electric power on line or getting a sewer pipe fixed so that the kids no longer play in a pond of human waste would be unusual enough that it might bear reporting.
If reporters just want to do bang bang stories, how come they don't report on soldiers being awarded a Silver Star for heroism and report on what actions earned that medal?
You know the reason as well as I do. They are not anti-war. They are rooting for the other side.
Woof makes much of the reports of violence in Iraq. It would be foolish for anyone to claim that there is no violence. That is beside the point of this discussion.
Here are the official data for violence in the US for 2004
Murder: 16,137
Rape: 94,635
Robbery: 401,326
Assault: 854,911
All violent crimes: 1,367,009In a nation of about 300 million people, your chances of getting killed, raped, robbed or otherwise assaulted are about 1 in 200. That’s pretty high. And if the news media focused on that, and we did not know anything else about American society because we did not live here, we would conclude that America is over-run by murderers, rapists and other violent criminals. We could conclude that Americans are irredeemable and the thought of taking a vacation or traveling to such a violent place sheer insanity. And the fact is, there are people in the world who actually believe that. We call these people misinformed or foolish.
Thanks to the Internet and the fact that we have citizens on the ground who allows us to have a more complete picture of the reality in Iraq, we are not totally dependent on the incredibly narrow slice of life that the MSM present of reality in Iraq.
They say that the news media has a slogan: “if it bleeds it leads.” That does less harm in this country because we can look around us and see reality and compare it to the stories we get fed by the MSM. Although, let’s not kid ourselves, it can do harm. It caused the rescue efforts after Katrina to be slowed down.
But we are being fed pictures of an incredibly violent Iraq without any context. No images of ordinary Iraqis going about their lives. Yet they do. No people shopping, unless they have been blown up, no children playing unless they have been killed, yet we are being asked to make political decisions based on the view of Iraq through the prism of universal violence provided by a MSM that has become the propaganda arms of those who want the Islamofacists to win.
Ordinary curfews , ordinary electriciry ,gasoline, water outages. Ordinary political leaders' assasinations, ordinary private militias, secret private jails . Ordinary bombings of markets and houses of worship.
Ordinary gang kidnappings, mass graves.
Gonna be a big spring break destination. Book early for hotels with superior blast walls, bring your kevlar vest.
Way to get ridiculous WOOF.
Continue ignoring the full picture. Focus only on the negative. It is what you are.
Woof, my firend - an you are my friend - what you have replied is not an argument; it's a snarky comment that exposes your intellect.
Want some more examples? Ordinary people dying of starvation, no electricity, no heat so people froze, living amidst the rubble and rampant crime. West Germany after WW2 – for several years.
Add rape and plunder and that describes East Germany under Stalin’s men.
The sad problem with most people today is that they are not aware of their own invincible ignorance. They’re taking too many self esteem courses.
Hey Woof, just trying to understand your psychology here.
People here are posting about good things going on in Iraq, and how the press ignores it.
Why do you feel the immediate need to try to counteract that with negative information about the war in Iraq?
I am really curious about what drives that. Are you trying to educate us, as if we don't know bad things are happening in Iraq?
Do you want the other side to win? I assume you don't, and would be surprised if you did want them to win - ergo, my question.
Why do you feel the need to dwell on the negative?