Braddock wrote:
sergeriver wrote:
Is the bias in the media increasing the number of misinformed people around the world? Is the selection of news and the way they are covered responsible for people being confused or ignorant of what's going on in the World? Are the major news networks and journalists the ones to blame for the spreading of ignorance? If so, how do you control the quality and the standards of journalism without violating the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press? What role does education play when people choose a news media service? Do you think there's a solution? Or will we always be just another number in the herd? Could the improvement of education eliminate this issue? Or will corporate interests always control the way information gets to you?
I've been watching a lot of FOX news this week as I've been up in my family home where they have the full SKY package and I had forgotten how ridiculous the news is these days ...and yes, I know FOX are not the only culprits. Can anyone tell me is there a news watchdog in the US that reports false claims and reports or addresses examples of blatant bias? If not, why not have one? Not a body that can censor or ban news stations but an independent body that can publish reports on unbalanced news reporting so that the public can be better informed as regards what news networks to take seriously.
There's a website about
Journalism in America.Let's take a look at what they have to say about
Fox.stateofthemedia2006 wrote:
On Fox News, during the same hour, the co-anchor E.D. Hill was defending the Bush administration from criticisms by the former Homeland Security chief, Tom Ridge , that the administration often raised the terror alert over his objections. “If you don’t raise it and something happens, everyone’s gonna get blamed for not raising it, if you do raise it then people say, nothing happened, why’d you do it?” she said in response to Ridge’s comments, reported in USA Today that morning. “I don’t think there is any way to win on that one.” Her co-anchor, Steve Doocy, made the case partisan. “And the other thing is how many times during the campaign did we hear Democrats say they are doing this for political reasons?” he asked. But Ridge, he said, “did not ever suggest they did anything like that.”
Over on Fox News’s “Fox and Friends,” viewers on May 11 got a program constructed quite differently. In the 7 a.m. hour there was just one on-scene report from a correspondent — a live report from the courthouse in Illinois , which broke to a packaged report, and one report (about the unexploded grenade) with the correspondent live from the Washington studio.
The bulk of the program involved the three anchors chatting or reading a teleprompter. With fewer reporters in the field than CNN, Fox relies more on the chemistry and banter of its hosts. At the same time, that may be one reason why its morning program seems more a distinct program than simply another part of the cable channel’s day.
The story lineup was even more government focused-than CNN’s. There were multiple reports on the grenade near Bush in Georgia . There was a segment on a bill to require identification tags for illegal immigrants. The violence in Iraq was a brief “tell” story.
Another difference on Fox in the morning is that it has abandoned the more disinterested neutral voice of traditional broadcasting. It is a clearly American channel, with the U.S. government frequently referred to in the first person plural — “we” and “us.” In Fox’s lead story of the morning, the case of the grenade in Georgia , E.D. Hill, speaking not of herself or Fox News but of American officials, said, “Our people haven’t been able to look at it. So they (Georgian officials) keep counseling us. We haven’t been able to say it’s a hand grenade. We don’t know what it is exactly.”
Viewers also got a sense of point of view in the choice of stories and in the way they were handled. That came through in a subject not found on CNN or MSNBC during the hour — an interview with Gary Aldrich, president of the Patrick Henry Center , a foundation to promote “individual liberty” and known for its conservatives views. They discussed Steve Gardner, one of the Swift Boat Veterans who was critical of John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election campaign. Steve Gardner, Aldrich said, was “the only Swift Boat veteran who served on the boat that John Kerry commanded. So he was in a unique position to observe John Kerry up close and personal.” The Fox anchor Steve Doocy then added that Gardner was fired from his job after appearing in commercials. “We had him on our program. Right after he got on TV, and said all that stuff, he got fired.” No other source offering a differing view was mentioned.
Fox fleshed out its morning coverage with a sports round-up from one of the hosts and a brief host discussion of the episode of “American Idol” coming up that night. The final segment was an interview between E.D. Hill and the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that studies the effects on immigration on the U.S. , over a new administration program to cover some health costs of illegal immigrants. The director, Mark Krikorian, was clearly critical of the administration.