Our Sound-Bite Society

[rccar328]

I noticed something that disturbed me the other day. It's bothered me in the past, this time it really got to me.

 

I had been hearing all day on the radio news reports about George Tenet's speech about the CIA's intelligence on Iraq before the war. Curious as to what he said, I went looking for more info.

 

What disturbed me was the amount of media bias in all of the news reports I read. Some were slanted to an obvious anti-Bush stance, while others had a pro-Bush outlook. Not satisfied with any of these sources, I looked for a word-for-word transcript of the speech, which allowed me to see that Mr. Tenet's speech had elements that helped Bush's cause, as well as elements that hurt it.

 

This led me to reflect on the news that we get everyday. Not only did the reports I read have differing views, but they used different quotes to sum up the speech, and as a result, neither slant gave the whole story.

 

I believe that this is part of why our nation is so politically divided - many people choose a news source whose political views agree with theirs, and that is the only news (and slant) they get. Instead of forming honest opinions of the issues, we too often allow news agencies to choose the sound-bites we will hear, and too often those sound-bites are carefully chosen to fit that agency's own political agenda.

 

This is not a new problem; it has been happening as far back as the news media has existed, as reporters, instead of merely reporting the news, allow their own views to affect how they report the news.

 

With increasing political tensions in America, I believe that our sound-bite society is beginning to be a problem, as carefully-chosen sound-bites prevent people from making their own fully-informed, unbiased decisions.

[SkinWalker]

I must say that I agree with this post 100%.

 

I, too, heard differing slants in news reports, but about the David Kay speech. Fortunately, I heard both of these on the same network (National Public Radio).

 

The George Tenet reports on NPR seemed neutral or perhaps somewhat favorable to Bush, but overall it appeared from the NPR news that Tenet was attempting to cover his own, which I can't necessarily blame him for.

 

I rarely view/listen to news from other sources these days. Other networks and media sources appear to lean their reports to one side or another, depending, I suppose, on what they feel that their viewers most likely want to hear.

 

There is still some bias on NPR, but at least it doesn't appear to be network bias. There are individual reporters with NPR that seem to have a bias, but there's a good mix and, overall, the reporters seem to remain objective. I think Don Gonyea does an outstanding job at remaining neutral in his reporting of the Whitehouse... I've been trying to detect a bias from him for years.. I can't hear it.

 

Certainly, NPR will cover human issues and because of this, gets the perception of being liberal, but I think this is, again, a media outlet attempting to fill a niche.

 

Go to the National Public Radio website and listen to some of the more recent news coverages there... I'm interested in what rccar thinks of them.

[taoistimmortal]

This has also bothered me in the past, and I have to be honest and say that it has occasionally filled me with a sort of hopelessness for the future. Specifically because the media is an extremely powerful entity in contemporary society.

 

I'm reminded of one of the three oaths that Aes Sedai took in order to become full sisters in the Wheel of Times series by Robert Jordan, particularly the one that proihibited them from telling any sort of lie. But they still, in this world, even with the restriction of this oath, had developed the reputation for being masters of deception. The method they employed was manipulation. They would selectively word a statement so that the listener would assume what the Aes Sedai wanted them to assume and they did it in a manner that allowed them to keep their oath. In a way the sound bites, depending on who the reporter is, do the same thing

[rccar328]

There is still some bias on NPR, but at least it doesn't appear to be network bias. There are individual reporters with NPR that seem to have a bias, but there's a good mix and, overall, the reporters seem to remain objective.

 

Among conservatives, NPR is stereotyped as liberal radio. I've stayed away from its news for years simply because I like to listen to the local news in the morning & talk radio in the afternoon/evening. Usually when I turn on NPR it is because of their excellent classical music programming. But, based on what you said, I thought I'd try out their news for a week.

 

First, I tried out their website. I didn't really see any bias in the reports I read there, but seeing as how my computer's retarded and doesn't handle audio from the internet very well, I had to pass on the listening part.

 

When it came to listening to the radio station, though, I was sorely disappointed. Didn't even take me a week to hear the liberal bias on NPR (I actually heard it the first day, but I thought it might've been a fluke, so I kept going for a few more days). They're definitely more subtle than some other liberally biased news outlets, but the bias is definitely there (and quite blatant at some points).

 

I think the problem, Skin, is that you agree with their views and interpret them as truth rather than bias. I do the same thing with conservative talk radio sometimes.

 

The difference between NPR and conservative talk radio shows, though, is that conservative talk radio shows don't hide behind the guise of a news agency. When you listen to conservative talk radio (Limbaugh, Hannity, etc.), you know you're getting a conservative viewpoint.

 

This is the problem with bias in the mainstream news media - they give the impression that they are only reporting the facts, but in fact the reporters and sometimes the networks are allowing their own biases interfere with how they report those facts, thus twisting those facts to reflect the reporter's opinions.

 

I found this report about ABC news admitting to a liberal bias in the news media.

 

Now, the article that the link takes you to is on WorldNet Daily, a definitely conservatively leaning news organization, but they are just commenting on this ABC News report, which is about liberal bias in the media.

 

Seeing as how it is relevant to this thread, I thought it prudent to post it and see just what people think about it.

 

Personally, I think the only way that people are going to get unbiased news is to look up as many transcripts of newsmakers' speeches & interviews as possible (or see them firsthand), which the average joe simply doesn't have the time to do (which is quite unfortunate).