Media Bias

An odd feeling has come over me, it is a lot like deja vu.

I remember back in college when I ran for Student Body President how much I was surprised at the ease that the school news reporters could be swayed to print a particular article or at how blatant news could be twisted with a particular slant.

This experience has given me an extra critical eye on both the print and, especially, TV news media. I do not want to disparage the good college school reporters but there sure were a lot of idiots and they had to get jobs somewhere... my guess, mostly at Fox News.

I look for the little things. Like George Stephanopoulos saying on This Week today that the Holiday weekend provided "No rest for the candidates", yet that is exactly what John McCain is doing this weekend. Bias?

Or the pouncing on Obama for restating his long held position on Iraq. Simply to get out and get out carefully... apparently all the reporters that have been repeatedly emailed by the Republicans to "Look out for Obama's shift on Iraq" took the bait.

What about the "Flip Flopper" argument that is red hot against Obama right now but seems to be passing McCain over when he has done so much more of it?

This ability to lead the media by the nose ring, is pretty shameful. I understand when it happens to Fox News (that is their business model after all)... but when the ABC, CNN & CBS all follow along it is embarrassing to watch.

Here is another one, it appears that these news organization are calling the surge a success. Yet, their coverage of Iraq has been way, way, WAY down over the past two months. How do they measure success? Is it that only a few US service people have been killed, is it that only a few hundred civilians have been blow up? Is it that reconciliation has taken place? Is it that Iraqis are standing up for themselves? What is the measure for this success? How can you call it an "apparent" success when you do not define what success is?

After being lead to war by Bush and the sound bite media's complete lack of backbone to question the march to armed conflict, I think that the media owes us better during the presidential campaign.

It was stunning to listen to Obama's speeches this weekend and watch the sound bite coverage of the campaign. The speeches laid out detailed plans, set a positive tone for dealing with tough problems and showed a man willing to bring the country together by looking at common ground rather than what divides us. Did we get any of this nuance in the coverage? NO!

Instead we get headlines like CNN's "Obama says he has been very consitant on Iraq". Which implies he has not.

How about Politico's Rezko calls straw-donor claim reckless? Why is this even a top headline?

Here's a good one from CBS Black Conservative Group Rips Obama... How many "blacks" does this group represent?

Both Obama and McCain deserve better from the media. We, the VOTERS and CONSUMERS of news, deserve better.

Here are some ideas for headlines we actually care about:

- Why does it cost so much to take your kids to the ER? Or for the medicine after the ER trip? Why is it so much cheaper in every other industrialized country? Are copays, deductibles and premiums really a hidden tax on middle class workers? How much profit did the HMOs make last year? So far this year?
- Why is the price of gas going up when supplies are plentiful? Who is really driving up the price? What don't we know?
- Why is the Taliban regaining power in Afghanistan? What role(s) does the Poppy plant play? What is our ally Pakistan up to?
- Why are there so few subsidies for home builders and home buyers to use alternate forms energy? How much green house gases do coal fired power plants generate? What would happen if Detroit built more "green" vehicles? What is the definition of "green" in this context?
- What factors are leading to CEOs getting paid hundreds of times the average worker in their corporations? Why do companies that perform poorly still pay their CEOs millions? What corporations don't? How does that work out for them?
- Why is the US practicing to bomb Iran? What is Israel's role? What is the current administrations stance on this? What would be the fallout from such an action? Would it make gas more expensive? Would Iran attack the US in Iraq? What would our allies think?
- What are each candidate's positions on the above issues?

Are these topics not sexy enough? How about some real issue discussion rather than distractions? Good media knows to do the right thing... so do it!