How the media is secretly right-wing

Check out this quote from today's article on the closed session:

"Unable to win their way with votes, outnumbered Democrats used a rarely invoked Senate rule to force a secret session as a way to dramatize their assertions that the Bush administration misused intelligence in the run-up to war in Iraq."

Why isn't this being reported as "Senate discusses Bush administration in closed session. The charges are so serious that the democratic leadership called for a closed session to discuss the monumental charges against high leadership in the administration"?

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It's an AP article! Shameful behavior.

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I agree, and it was only an afternoon.

You mean like they did with the WMDs?

I'm tired of pretending like we won because someone got a little more press. We won't win until the media stops accepting spins from this corrupt and lying administration.

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The media is neither conservative nor liberal. The media is, however, a slave of The Man -- and that's far more insidious.

How the media is secretly right-wing

LOL LOL LOL Maybe Fox News is, but everyone else sure isn't.

Maybe you can answer why last week on 60 Minutes, Ed Bradley did a story about Valerie Plame. He interviewed one of her classmates who said "We CIA people like to remain anonymous." Tell me, why didn't Bradley ask, "Then what is she doing on the cover of Vanity Fair?"

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Goth - simple answer - "Because she was outed by the Vice President's Chief of Staff."

straws, prepare to be clutched more often.

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quick note:

speaking in terms of "both sides" of an issue is a misnomer. There are more than two sides to every coin.

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Speaking as someone who's worked in newspapers, commercial radio, and now public radio:

- Most reporters are "liberal" by nature. Most reporters get into the business because they want to question, explore the world around them, and challenge the traditional and authoritarian views. The media SHOULD be "broad-minded," the definition of liberal.

- Most Republicans don't want to become reporters. They want to make money instead. You do NOT become rich in the news.

- Most reporters don't want to let their politics or beliefs show in their work. They're usually very good at exploring a perspective alien to their own. But sometimes they're accidentally tripped up by their choice of words or phrasing.

- Most media owners are conservative, Republican, profit-seekers. The owners/publishers don't usually run the day-to-day reporting operations, but sometimes choose their managers (and their opinion writers!) with Republican values in mind.

- The news is not a profitable business. It's very expensive to maintain a staff of reporters and editors, in addition to the usual technical production costs. Entertainment is where all the money is. This has two affects:
1) Consultants have for a LONG time been telling media how to make things flashier and shorter to keep the public's attention. (I feel like a Kindergardener when watching the television)
2) News organizations across the board are cutting back on their staffs, dismantling overseas bureaus, and using more of those #*@$! PR videos that companies and the government send out.

- The Associated Press is closely tied to its member operations. Where I live, their office is part of our newspaper. AP reports from here are in essence the newspaper's reports.

I proudly work for a public radio station, owned by a board made up of the community. National Public Radio is the ONE organization that's expanding news staff and opening bureaus, because the world is so complex we can't live with sound bites.
We're far from perfect, and we have our quibbles with NPR. But it's the only place I can listen to the news and get a full picture from more than two perspectives.

There's a reason why FOX viewers are the most uniformed group in the nation.

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Read this book. I read it in J-school.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1888363479/102-6044880-7260117?v=glance

It's really cheap, really short and puts everything into a pretty good perspective.

JoeKv99--will you marry me?

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