{"id":847,"date":"2008-10-26T15:05:06","date_gmt":"2008-10-26T19:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=847"},"modified":"2008-10-26T15:05:06","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T19:05:06","slug":"media-biased-michael-malone-thinks-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/26\/media-biased-michael-malone-thinks-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Biased? Michael Malone Thinks So"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just how bad has the media’s coverage of the presidential campaign been?<\/p>\n

Bad enough that ABC News’s Silicon Insider Michael Malone says he’s “embarrassed to admit what I do for a living”.<\/p>\n

The traditional media are playing a very, very dangerous game — with their readers, with the Constitution and with their own fates.<\/p>\n

The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I’ve found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer.<\/p>\n

But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I’ve begun — for the first time in my adult life — to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was “a writer,” because I couldn’t bring myself to admit to a stranger that I’m a journalist.<\/p>\n

You need to understand how painful this is for me. I am one of those people who truly bleeds ink when I’m cut. I am a fourth-generation newspaperman. As family history tells it, my great-grandfather was a newspaper editor in Abilene, Kan., during the last of the cowboy days, then moved to Oregon to help start the Oregon Journal (now the Oregonian).<\/p>\n

My hard-living — and when I knew her, scary — grandmother was one of the first women reporters for the Los Angeles Times. And my father, though profoundly dyslexic, followed a long career in intelligence to finish his life (thanks to word processors and spellcheckers) as a very successful freelance writer. I’ve spent 30 years in every part of journalism, from beat reporter to magazine editor. And my oldest son, following in the family business, so to speak, earned his first national byline before he earned his drivers license.<\/p>\n

So, when I say I’m deeply ashamed right now to be called a “journalist,” you can imagine just how deep that cuts into my soul.<\/p>\n

Now, of course, there’s always been bias in the media. Human beings are biased, so the work they do, including reporting, is inevitably colored. Hell, I can show you 10 different ways to color variations of the word “said” — muttered, shouted, announced, reluctantly replied, responded, etc. — to influence the way a reader will apprehend exactly the same quote. We all learn that in Reporting 101, or at least in the first few weeks working in a newsroom.<\/p>\n

But what we are also supposed to learn during that same apprenticeship is to recognize the dangerous power of that technique, and many others, and develop built-in alarms against them.<\/p>\n

But even more important, we are also supposed to be taught that even though there is no such thing as pure, Platonic objectivity in reporting, we are to spend our careers struggling to approach that ideal as closely as possible.<\/p>\n

That means constantly challenging our own prejudices, systematically presenting opposing views and never, ever burying stories that contradict our own world views or challenge people or institutions we admire. If we can’t achieve Olympian detachment, than at least we can recognize human frailty — especially in ourselves. Read the rest…<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just how bad has the media’s coverage of the presidential campaign been? Bad enough that ABC News’s Silicon Insider Michael Malone says he’s “embarrassed to admit what I do for a living”. The traditional media are playing a very, very dangerous game — with their readers, with the Constitution and with their own fates. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19,7],"tags":[47,260,261],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-media","category-politics","tag-2008-elections","tag-media-bias","tag-michael-malone","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-dF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1695,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/17\/the-hits-keep-coming-chris-dodd-was-for-aig-bonuses-before-we-was-against-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":0},"title":"The Hits Keep Coming: Chris Dodd Was For AIG Bonuses Before He Was Against Them","author":"Jeff","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From Fox Business (emphasis mine): Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9194, 0.1393, 17.86%) bonus recipients so the government could recoup some or all of the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1423,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/30\/breaking-steele-name-new-rnc-chairman\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":1},"title":"Breaking: Steele Named New RNC Chairman","author":"Jeff","date":"January 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Still looking for details but... Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele has been elected Chairman of\u00a0 the Republican National Committee. Update: Steele defeated South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson 91-77 in the sixth round of voting to become RNC chairman. My immediate reaction is this a good day for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1791,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/24\/media-bias-what-media-bias\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":2},"title":"Media Bias, What Media Bias???","author":"Jeff","date":"March 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Mike over at Flopping Aces points out striking visual evidence of media bias: Mark Dziubek of Southington Conn. steps off a bus in Fairfield Conn. on Saturday March 21, 2009 as members of the media wait outside at a AIG executive\u2019s home. A busload of activists outnumbered 2-to-1 by reporters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media"","block_context":{"text":"Media","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/media\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Media Bias","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/sdfgdftf-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4067,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/20\/nbc-apologizes-for-omitting-%e2%80%98a-portion%e2%80%99-of-the-pledge-of-allegiance\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":3},"title":"NBC Apologizes for Omitting \u2018a Portion\u2019 of the Pledge of Allegiance","author":"Jeff","date":"June 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"NBC Sports began their coverage of the final round of the U. S. Open Championship with a video feature that was supposed to \"captured the patriotism of our national championship\". What they did was stir up a controversy by omitting a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance. Which portion? The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2225,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/michael-steele-gop-must-confront-obama-head-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":4},"title":"Michael Steele: GOP Must Confront Obama Head-On","author":"Jeff","date":"May 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been swamped for the past few days and haven't been paying close attention to the new but one thing that did catch my attention was Michael Steele's speech at the RNC Chairman's meeting yesterday. It was a great speech...\u00a0 Greg Hengler has the whole 30-minute address at Townhall.com but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2257,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/27\/fec-clears-palin-rnc-on-campaign-clothes\/","url_meta":{"origin":847,"position":5},"title":"FEC Clears Palin, RNC on Campaign Clothes","author":"Jeff","date":"May 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember the media fueled brouhaha about Sarah Palin's campaign wardrobe? Remember how the media and lefty bloggers gleefully reported that those purchases must have somehow been illegal? Umm, well they weren't... The Federal Elections Commission has dismissed a complaint by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) saying the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}