I recently saw this quote (the title of this post), by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in a column written by Ted Koppel in the Washington Post. For those who don’t know, Moynihan was a New York senator under President Kennedy’s administration, all the way up to President Ford.
I was drawn to Koppel’s column because it was about something that has been bothering me for a while. The “news” doesn’t seem like “news” anymore. In fact, I honestly don’t even remember when news was just the facts. It seems like most news I hear, read, or listen to, has some sort of bias, even if it’s not apparent up front. I’ve read articles about the same topic on FoxNew’s Web site, then on CNN’s Web site. They’re essentially about the same topic, but written from very different angles. I remember doing this around the time of the Gulf oil spill last spring. FoxNews’ article focused on how the Obama administration wasn’t doing enough, and how often Obama himself was on vacation. CNN’s article focused on Obama’s trips down to the Gulf and how he was helping out. It’s not that either of the articles is reporting false information. But stories are probably reporting facts, but it’s interesting to note how each chose to focus on different “facts,” thus representing their own bias.
I had a conversation with my parents about “news” a while ago. They said when they were growing up (in the 60s and 70s) that news was news. They watched the nightly news on one of the three channels they got and that was it. Then cable came along and news somehow changed.
Now we have two main polarized cable “news” channels – FoxNews and CNN, which tend to lean conservative and liberal, respectively. Of course, each claims to be an unbiased news source. And to some extent, they are. They both report facts – it’s just the way they report them that makes them different.
However, shows such as Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann, aren’t “news.” But I think some viewers take it as news. I’m not normally a huge Koppel fan, but he makes some good points in his column – that news stations tell viewers what they want to hear to reinforce his or her political beliefs, and that although news can be bias, true objectivity is pretty much impossible to accomplish.
One of the things I remember learning while majoring in journalism at Western Michigan University in undergrad, was exactly that; that no matter how hard you try, you simply cannot be totally unbiased. Even a certain quote a reporter chooses to use – if he or she uses one over another – is bias. The way a reporter chooses to angle a story, focusing on one aspect instead of another, is bias. It’s might not be politically bias, but it’s still bias.
I don’t think it’s just FoxNews and CNN, however. I think the general news, whether it is a local newspaper, TV station, or the AP wire, has its own bias. That doesn’t mean the bias is necessarily political though. As I said before, I don’t think anything is truly unbiased, no matter what the topic.
As things change, and as news is portrayed on cable channels and on the internet, I think people must become better, more thoughtful consumers. We can’t just read, listen to or watch a news story and instantly believe everything it has to say. We must critically think about “facts” in the news and why a story is angled a certain way. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone realized this and questioned stories in the news more often? Or, on second thought, shouldn’t “news” be “news” so people don’t have to question a stories’ truthfulness?
If you’re interested, you can read Koppel’s column here.
I was drawn to Koppel’s column because it was about something that has been bothering me for a while. The “news” doesn’t seem like “news” anymore. In fact, I honestly don’t even remember when news was just the facts. It seems like most news I hear, read, or listen to, has some sort of bias, even if it’s not apparent up front. I’ve read articles about the same topic on FoxNew’s Web site, then on CNN’s Web site. They’re essentially about the same topic, but written from very different angles. I remember doing this around the time of the Gulf oil spill last spring. FoxNews’ article focused on how the Obama administration wasn’t doing enough, and how often Obama himself was on vacation. CNN’s article focused on Obama’s trips down to the Gulf and how he was helping out. It’s not that either of the articles is reporting false information. But stories are probably reporting facts, but it’s interesting to note how each chose to focus on different “facts,” thus representing their own bias.
I had a conversation with my parents about “news” a while ago. They said when they were growing up (in the 60s and 70s) that news was news. They watched the nightly news on one of the three channels they got and that was it. Then cable came along and news somehow changed.
Now we have two main polarized cable “news” channels – FoxNews and CNN, which tend to lean conservative and liberal, respectively. Of course, each claims to be an unbiased news source. And to some extent, they are. They both report facts – it’s just the way they report them that makes them different.
However, shows such as Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann, aren’t “news.” But I think some viewers take it as news. I’m not normally a huge Koppel fan, but he makes some good points in his column – that news stations tell viewers what they want to hear to reinforce his or her political beliefs, and that although news can be bias, true objectivity is pretty much impossible to accomplish.
One of the things I remember learning while majoring in journalism at Western Michigan University in undergrad, was exactly that; that no matter how hard you try, you simply cannot be totally unbiased. Even a certain quote a reporter chooses to use – if he or she uses one over another – is bias. The way a reporter chooses to angle a story, focusing on one aspect instead of another, is bias. It’s might not be politically bias, but it’s still bias.
I don’t think it’s just FoxNews and CNN, however. I think the general news, whether it is a local newspaper, TV station, or the AP wire, has its own bias. That doesn’t mean the bias is necessarily political though. As I said before, I don’t think anything is truly unbiased, no matter what the topic.
As things change, and as news is portrayed on cable channels and on the internet, I think people must become better, more thoughtful consumers. We can’t just read, listen to or watch a news story and instantly believe everything it has to say. We must critically think about “facts” in the news and why a story is angled a certain way. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone realized this and questioned stories in the news more often? Or, on second thought, shouldn’t “news” be “news” so people don’t have to question a stories’ truthfulness?
If you’re interested, you can read Koppel’s column here.
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