"News" Media Bias
Surprise - journalists are left-leaning. You could argue that a really honest reporter wouldn't allow their personal party affiliations to color their reporting. But when a huge majority of the news media leans left, its hard to really believe that this doesn't somehow introduce a smidgeon of bias into the news.
If its too much to ask that journalists try to refrain from having an opinion on current affairs, then news media needs to either:
(1) Explicitly declare the political position of the culture of its staff, or
(2) Ensure that staff composition reflects social structure. Just as its good to have ethnic diversity on staff, its essential to have a diversity of opinions.
I know its outrageous to ask that the NYT is 10% black, 10% hispanic and 50% republican. It's unreasonable for NPR to be 50% male. But until then, lets not pretend that the news media isn't broken. Frankly I'm surprised that journalists make donations to either party. For the skewed coverage they offer on almost any political topic their services to the Democrats are immeasurable - in a fair world, reporters would be on DNC staff.
Sidenote: BBC would have written this headline better: "Journalists" give campaign cash.
Update: Hilariously, one of the 'public-spirited' donors was Randy Cohen, who covers ethics for the NYT and NPR.
If its too much to ask that journalists try to refrain from having an opinion on current affairs, then news media needs to either:
(1) Explicitly declare the political position of the culture of its staff, or
(2) Ensure that staff composition reflects social structure. Just as its good to have ethnic diversity on staff, its essential to have a diversity of opinions.
I know its outrageous to ask that the NYT is 10% black, 10% hispanic and 50% republican. It's unreasonable for NPR to be 50% male. But until then, lets not pretend that the news media isn't broken. Frankly I'm surprised that journalists make donations to either party. For the skewed coverage they offer on almost any political topic their services to the Democrats are immeasurable - in a fair world, reporters would be on DNC staff.
Sidenote: BBC would have written this headline better: "Journalists" give campaign cash.
Update: Hilariously, one of the 'public-spirited' donors was Randy Cohen, who covers ethics for the NYT and NPR.
- sheikh X at 8:57 AM
3 Comments:
You must be joking. These are the people who mostly write about Paris Hilton's chihuahua (front page on CNN some time ago). That's who you expect something serious and balanced from?
These numbers, you should note, are somewhat skewed by the fact that the media is disproportionately located in urban centers, particularly New York, and urban areas are already disproportionately liberal. Therefore, reporters reflect their geography. Secondly, since the vast majority of reporters--beyond your Anderson Coopers and Judith Millers of the world--earn a piddling of an income compared to other white-collar professions (even scientists), it serves to reason that conservatives are less likely to sign up for the field than do-good liberals. The solution to media bias, then? Pay reporters more!
Pay them more? You must be kidding! The average journalist, who has a minimal command of English and is fresh out of college (after that blessed English major for those inane at calculus or biochemistry), makes far more than a scientist who went through a tough and demanding PhD.
The real bias of the media is not liberal, is idiotic. No matter which side they come from, the overwhelming majority of journalists are lazy, full of cliches and ready to repeat what everyone else says.
There is a solution though: ask them to write less and forbid them to go on TV, that seems to be neurotoxic.
Write less and be controlled more for the facts - otherwise, if you have to write often, you will necessarily be superficial and misinformed, no matter how smart or well-intentioned you are to start with.
And let's be honest, being a journalist is not like being a scientist or physician or sculptor or musician, professions in which performance can be seen fairly obviously. In contrast, any shmuck can write some and not have the incompetence be glaring - which is precisely what you see in the press: individuals that often can't do anything else and are lazy (yet still want a good job) will go for journalism.
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