The problem arises when media reporters editorialize or slant the stories
based on their own personal opinions, instead of sharing all of the facts.

It happens quite frequently on television, but also in other journalistic
media. Expressing an emotion or an opinion disqualifies a journalism piece
from being journalism... Omitting facts in order to create a specific
opinion is equally as biased.

For example, as I sit here typing this message, the anchor on the local
news broadcast on Fox followed a story from one of his colleagues with a
comment - "Unbelievable!". While the original story was factual and not
biased, the anchor's comment sensationalized the story, and rendered the
fact-delivering news piece editorialized. I suspect it may evev have bee
unintentional, and surely it was not the fault of the reporter.

In the interim, several other reports were presented, followed by the
anchor's obviously ratings-driven editorial comments, some of which were
probably not too damaging (for example, "fascinating" following a health
news story).

Managing editors really need to better manage the ratings-driven approach
to anchor filler in order to avoid editorializing the pieces and rendering
even the unbiased stories as slanted...

Of course, since ALL for-profit media outlets are in the business of
selling advertising, which depends on viewership (or readership), the
ratings-driven approach is most likely to beat out the unbiased one...

That's doesn't mean that every journalist is "bad". But most of the popular
media outlets have "sold out" to the ratings business for the sake of
generating revenue.

Oh, yeah, and there are definitely a fair share of journalists who
selectively share facts so as to create a very specific public perception
that is in line with the agenda of the reporter, the newspaper, or both.


("I'm not really a Media Analyst, but I play one on Usenet.")

"gatt" wrote in
:


"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message

Yep. Abuses happen in every industry from journalism to law
enforcement. And lots of small planes crash. You hear about it on
the news all the time. A sucker might be given to believe that it
happens more often than not because of what they hear in the media.

Actually, relatively few crash. If lots of them did, it wouldn't be
news.

My point exactly. People who do not understand how the media works
think they can't go out at night without being victimized, can't get in
airplanes without crashing, can't drive a jeep without it flipping
over...

Mechanically speaking, however, that is the reader's interpretation of
the information. An informed reader would note the dramatic footage of
a news helicopter crashing and understand that it was a rare and
dramatic event. Another viewer might assume that all news helicopters
crash.

A third viewer will videotape the story, watch it over and over and
then rant about media bias, and a forth, who flew MS Flight Simulator
2004 a lot and thinks he's a pilot, might assert that it was pilot
error and anybody who tells them otherwise obviously didn't get proper
helicopter flying instruction. There are a couple of the latter on
this newsgroup, it would seem.

-c