Just a reminder of what
should make it to the main stage, but doesn't, via Grim. Bias in reporting can be revealed in word choice or editorial comment. That's what we usually think of. Or it can mean a news outlet hammering at a story for days, because it looks bad for one POV. But it can also mean things that are consistently ignored, week after week, year after year, until most of the culture no longer even thinks in that direction.
ReplyDeleteThat's the most powerful kind of reporting bias. You never know what you're missing: unknown unknowns.
We have learned to read the media as the Russians did TASS, PRAVDA, and IZVESTIA.
ReplyDeleteIn one of my infrequent moves to go a bit political on Facebook, I posted a link to Sheryl Atkisson's "just the facts" summary of the email scandal. Immediately a hyper-liberal friend complained of Atkisson's bias. Several exchanges later, he never had gotten off the generalized complaint of bias and addressed a single fact in the post. Another liberal friend hopped on to complain about Trump, and similarly refused to address a single fact about Clinton. It's the worst sort of partisan approach to a political disagreement. Attempts to get them away from personalities and back to the alleged facts met only with a lot of complaints that I was refusing to focus on the real issue, which was bias. Smart guys, too; the first one is downright brilliant. It's just weird.
ReplyDeleteI may return to T99's example as a passing reference in my post ojn voting in two weeks or so.
ReplyDelete