I'll have a fuller update later, but remember how I mentioned that Fox News was around filming for what will likely be a less-than-admirable segment on the conference (on monday, here's a teaser from Bill O'Reilly). Filmmaker Robert Greenwald called them out to the audience!
The panels I attended are swimming in my head. The one I actually want to go back and watch the video of is the FCC panel because I thought it had some of the most concrete information about the upcoming fights in Congress over spectrum. Watch HR 2802 and hope it passes.
The constant praise of "family owned newspapers" like the Seattle Times is grating to me. In 2000 Frank Blethen overode his own editorial board to endorse George W. Bush for president. Why? Because the abolishment of the estate tax is VERY IMPORTANT to the Blethen family. In 2001 I recall a five-day front page series on the Estate Tax which was all about how bad it was for small business owners (like millionaire publishers). The Seattle Times also behaved very differently during the 2001 newspaper strike than did the "corporately owned" Seattle Post-Intelligencer. (I promise to find links to these assertions later...)
For other takes on the day's panels Local MN Blog has a pretty good rundown.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
NCMR Day 2: Greenwald and Fox News
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3 comments:
Newscat..."family owned" papers are just fine. And seriously, Frank had how much effect on Seattle voters?
And a series on the Estate Tax, pro'lly a good thing for the public to know.
I'm glancing at the special reports of the family owned Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/specialreports/
and the corporate owned PI
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/
...and I don't see either as promoting a specific political party agenda.
Everyone has a bias, so every paper will have a bias. So, I don't really understand the big deal.
Newscat, I want your job. Please send guidelines on how to be you... except still me, of course.
You get paid to blog, don't you...?
As for jon's 'bias ain't a big deal' (sigh)... the whole job of the media is to present news in an unbiased, facts-only way. Sure, they may mess up from time to time, but that's what retractions are for - and those in the media need to be accountable for their errors. I guess different rules apply to op-eds, but there needs to be accountability for the veracity of statements made in op-eds too. Anyone who wants to write but doesn't care if they do so in a biased way... well, that's what blogs are for.
Dear Habaladora,
we all have biases, and I appreciate a group that is open about them, so I know what is tainting their view, than someone who says they are reporting just the facts.
One of the things bias does, is help narrow down the topics to report on. Most media, have a local bias. I'm sure your local paper isn't being plagued with how awesome the Boston Celtics are, or all the stupidly embarrassing details of the Sonics trial. Also, probably not much is reported on the terrorism - or freedom fighting- going on in Sri Lanka.
I think it is important for us to recognize bias, and try to get our news from a couple of different sources.
I haven't been watching the news much...by my world view used to be filtered by the following:
the Economist
Slate
Cato
Seattle PI
Seattle Times
Fox Sports
...As for Newscat's job...I think a very valuable part of her training was the sagacious acumen she acquired from me through the many hours that I mentored her.
:-)
alright, to be honest, I was a cook, she helped me out, we had plenty of time to argue while flipping burgers, cleaning kettles, cooking pizza. In fact, I believe her first words to me were...
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