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Michael Chase writes…
News should, at times, anger, insult, or depress us. But news that is scripted and produced to generate extremes of emotion regularly, typically do so by showing one-sided issues…this presentation predisposes us to be emotional (angry, supportive) for one side of the story or another. Never more clearly is this on display than when one watches any cable news outlet; the four principals (Fox, MSNBC, CNN, HLN) display lineups packed with angry people who are simply outraged…outraged I tell you…with what they are reporting. CNN did not used to operate in this manner, but as their ratings have slid, they have brought in more and more “anchors and hosts” with a talent for stirring the pot.
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What reckless branding, melodramatic pseudo-reporting, and opinion journalism has created, is a fixed ideological division in our nation that does not exist in nature. I really believe that most Americans are true independents. True libertarians aside, rank and file Republicans and Democrats tend to exist very near one another in terms of how they read the challenges facing our nation. Last spring, most folks within both parties knew that there were major problems in our health care marketplace, and wanted the government to do something. They said as much in poll after poll..until the branding war started. We will be faced with this problem in every issue that comes before the Congress of our nation, or the legislatures of our states, unless and until we can get control of our news…and the way we read it.
I agree with much of what is quoted above and most of what Chase writes in his article (do read it in its entirety). But Chase leaves out a key concept when discussing media in this modern age of communication. False equivalency.
It is simple enough to criticize media in general, be it Fox News or MSNBC, the Drudge Report or the Huffington Post. No one operates in an unbiased mode and to think otherwise would be both naive and foolish. Hell, even I am ready to admit that my writing and illustrations carry a liberal bias. Really. They do. </joke>
Once we accept the basic premise of bias in media, the question then becomes to what degree do the “two sides” disseminate information in an honest and factual manner. It is here that the idea of false equivalency must be addressed. To defend the actions of Fox by simply saying, “Hey, MSNBC does it too”, is not only unfair, it’s a mistake. Can you honestly compare the Glenn Beck show with that of Rachel Maddow’s? Bill O’Reilly’s to Keith Olbermann’s? Yes, one can find fault and liberal bias in Rachel and Keith’s shows but it’s about degree and integrity. Beck and O’Reilly have turned outright lying into an art form and it takes little effort to point out these lies by simply stating the facts. Can one honestly say the same for Maddow and Olbermann? The answer is no and I challenge anyone to point out where M & O lie night after night. Good luck with that.
Is there any surprise that 9 out of the top 10 radio talk shows are conservative? Conservative talk radio, the type practiced by Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Beck, Malkin and Levin, do not concern themselves with fact, honesty or integrity. Baseless rants strewn with misinformation mixed in with mock anger and shouting make for entertaining listening…if one is so inclined to listen to madmen do their thing. Bill Moyers calmly expressing his thoughts on an issue is not half as much fun as Glenn Beck screaming Armageddon at every turn. In this age of ten second attention spans, the emotions of fear and anger are much more enticing than those of calm and reason.
Yes, there are two sides to every issue but should we give equal weight to every opinion simply because it challenges another? Should climate change deniers be given equal air time when 99% of the world’s leading scientists are on one side of the issue? Should young earthers who claim that the universe is 6000 years old be given the same size platform as that of accepted science which speaks of a 14 billion year-old universe? Again, false equivalency.
The irony of it all is that the “biased” mainstream media is in fact afraid of being seen as biased. It is for this reason that the New York Times and ABC news give air time to people like James Inhofe, Sarah Palin, birthers and every other crackpot who has a gripe with something or other. Nobody wants to be seen as biased and in so doing they leave the uninformed with the mistaken idea that Inhofe, Palin and birthers have something real to say. They don’t. Really.
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