Can we agree on this?
If you have a cable talk show in prime time or a nationally syndicated radio show, you are hereby excluded from having any credibility whatsoever the first moment you complain about media coverage of an event. Republican. Democrat. Fox. MSNBC. O'Reilly. Scarborough. Hannity/Colmes. Limbaugh.
You ARE the media. Don't like it? Stand on a street corner.
Same goes for people who get interviewed whose only argument when the light goes on is: "The media coverage is biased." Well. The media is now interviewing you, and you have the opportunity to say something. So do it. About what you are being interviewed about.
Pablum.
posted by Teodoro Callate @ 7:44 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Ha!
I pose this question: is it possible at all, really, to be unbiased? Fair, maybe. Unbiased? Last time I checked no one was inside my head but me, and that was plenty confused, contradictory, surly and degrees of uninformed all by itself.
But if I ever get a talk show, I'll try to uphold that promise.
What is your definition of "fair", Betsy?
Teo, is your point that the media id biased or that the public views the media as biased whether they are or not?
i don't watch the news. haven't for a long time. for a long time, i have somewhat daringly boasted that i get my news from the daily show and yahoo headlines. and that's pretty much true. so i've been spared the katrina stuff, and i don't know if that's good or bad. as i'm one for wanting to be aware of social issues and stuff, i'm conflicted. but, on the other hand, there's so much ridiculous shit, i just don't know if it's worth my serenity to subject myself to the shit that tries to pass itself off as 'news.' it just makes me want to yell and yell and yell at the tv.
but....as things have trickled down to me via blogs and such (brian williams' interview last night on the daily show was amazing), it seems like for once the horror and humanity finally got through. the disparity between what was (IS?) going on in n'awlins and what the government was trying to spin was just so mindblowing that people couldn't deal.
and they just broke out of their zombie world and went berserk. koppel, cooper, CNN, olberman, many of them just cracked. and said....are you fucking kidding? you're LYING. you're wrong!! the weather service DID know it was going to be that bad! you could AIRLIFT things! you are just lying sacks.
it's about time. it's really about time. that FACTS get called out. and people get called on their spinning, lying, shit. it made me think: wow. maybe i should have started watching the news.
really, my only point is that too many media blowhards are only interested in griping about the media, rather than actually saying something constructive, informative, or substantive. I don't mind if you have an opinion. I don't mind if your opinion is completely different than mine. It's OK to have different ideas. But when your only idea (and strategy to influence your intended audience) is to gripe about media bias, then your "point" is so thin and weak that I just can't hear it any more.
Lots of blowhards out there making millions on radio and TV, all the while they hammer away about the "liberal media bias" or some such thing. THEY are the ones on TV. So...change the message. Got a point? Make it. Just don't give me the "media bias" crap when you are the one on television.
(this rule that I'm suggesting, however, applies to all blowhhards. not just conservative blowhards.)
Betsy: re: bias. I come from the world of psychology...where we all really have to admit that we all hold bias and prejudice and discriminatory tendencies. And we have to be aware of those things in order to help people the best we can. This is a tricky topic to write about so quickly...and this must be quick as I am at work (shhhh...).
So, no, I don't think anyone can be totally free of bias. Doesn't mean we can't be fair and do our best to be objective and intelligent. The bias we carry must be put into our own personal equation and considered before we step out there and say stupid shit (which we have all done). So. The overall tone and content of media coverage is necessarily influenced by personal bias. But if you watch Tim Russert or Bob Schiefer or Ted Koppel...you might have an inkling about their personal opinions, but you also don't walk away thinking that their opinions are the most important thing they are covering. The story is the most important thing. And they don't bitch about "media bias", because they are attempting to, you know, work. Try to watch O'Reilly or Limbaugh or even Keith Olbermann (who I like) and tell me whether their bias is first or second in their list of priorities.
Right?
Speaking of work...I have to!
Fair: presenting two sides? But I did say maybe. I think Ted's got it right; constructive, etc., and also smussy's point is good too - the fact that these reporters are breaking is great, I think. Oh, see, this is why I do what I do and stick with writing about what I know best: me.
Ted? Whose Ted?
Ha!
ooops!
WHO'S
i don't know about the media bias thing (which i think is so RIDICULOUS), cause people always say it in reference to this 'liberal media bias' when, the reason i stopped watching news was because of this conservative spin talking point blah blah blah shit. WHAT liberal media bias???
but, what i DO think people should be saying about the media (stewart has said it, DID say it on crossfire) is that they are NOT (until this hurricane) DOING THEIR JOB. they are just feeding the government press releases back to us.
i love it when the Daily does the snip/clips of the 'news' networks (all of them) giving the same EXACT phrases. over and over and over. my god. that is SO fucking frightening to me. so 1984.
i think people should be saying something about THAT. like HEY!!! where's the investigative journalism here?? 20/20 and dateline don't really cut it. on the Daily (yeah, i have a big hard-on for JS, i don't deny it, but i think he's really actually doing some amazing work) last night, they showed this clip of the president announcing his nomination of john roberts for supreme court justice where he says that he's a gentleman, and fox news puts up a graphic that says (as if it's breaking news):
ROBERTS: IS A GENTLEMAN.
?????????? what?!?
i mean, the absurdity is just too much. if i didn't see the screen shot, i'd think he was just riffin'.
that's the kind of thing that i just can't understand anymore. the screen shots and the scroll bars and the inanity of what is supposed to be 'news.' my god.
It was a once in a lifetime moment when Michael Moore stepped up to the podium to accept his award on national TV for Bowling for Columbine. At the time he was still quite new to the world. As he entered this rare moment he remained true to himself and spoke his mind.
I still relive that moment for him over and over in my head to this day. I admit I was a little bit of an advocate. I play his conscience. Mike, don’t speak your mind at the world right now – heed the moment a little. Breathe in a piece of where you are. Be who you are, but take it in and accept the acknowledgment with gratitude. Say “Thanks. If you haven’t seen my movie yet - go see it. It’s still out.” How many times do you get the attention of a planet while your product (your baby) is still on all the shelves? How many? Mike…baby… just say - “Thanks. See my movie.” We know you are witty.
I still think of all of the people who would have gone to see his movie that otherwise would not have. All of the transcendent influence that only comes at a stopgap in lifetime of hard work. Priceless. Deny yourself a little, once in a while, long enough to hear. The time to do that would be then at the greatest position of change. After all of that work, sometimes and only sometimes, comes a "tipping point" where heaviest perspectives can be changed with almost no effort at all. They are light, like a feather. “See my movie.” “Thank you”. World changed (?) Shifted anyway. By you. World. Shifted.
I admit that prior to that time I myself had been “working on” my parents a little bit. I’d been telling them what an interesting perspective this Michael Moore had. I was not being a fanatic – I just genuinely interested. They were skeptical but a little curious too. They had heard mixed things about him. I persisted in telling them to at least to check out his movie. My wife and I were moved by it and would love to be able to bounce it off them. You know, have something fresh to dialogue about. They were interested. The morning following the award show - they knew where they stood. They would never go see a Michael Moore movie. They never have and probably never will.
A man observed practically every 911 hijacker attend meetings in Okalahoma City year prior to the attack and wrote about them in a book that was ignored by the government.
A small tribe of people who still live off the coast of Thailand listened to the stories, saw the signs, and paddled over the tsunami at sea.
People with lifesaving jobs and supplies watched accurate high tech warning systems for days and waited to embark around the peninsula of Florida with aid.
The truth is alive. The truth speaks. Don’t buy into it. Engage it. Live it.
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