The Myth Of The Free Press
September 24, 2008 / 3:20 pm • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierYesterday, on the Blog Talk Radio show with John Hawkins, he asked me whether the press should just give up the pretense and be open about their bias. My response was that intelligent people could perceive a bias already, but that yes, the press should just be open about their bias and be done with it.
Jeff Goldstein writes today about the problem:
For my part, I’d just like to again reiterate that, should the press be allowed to comport itself this way under the current mythology that it is dedicated to “objectivity,” then every election will be necessarily skewed — if not by Evan Thomas’ infamous 15 percentage points, than at least by a number significant enough that it could very well be the deciding factor in every major election.
At which point, we’re dealing with no more than simulacrums of free elections, and the idea that we live in a democratic republic is but a useful fiction we tell ourselves as we slide ever more toward western European socialism and away from the principles this country was founded upon.
What’s the solution? I don’t know. But my suggestion would be either a press that surrenders the pretense of objectivity all together, or else some brave upstart looking for market share to come in with a clean slate of dedicated reporters who are taught not to “frame” facts into narratives that deliver “lessons,” but are rather instructed to report basic facts, almost genealogically — and without even the trappings of narrative.
Even then, omission and sequencing can be used to affect interpretation; but at least such things are easily recognizable when the tropes of “storytelling” are entirely removed.
The last part, the omissions, are what worry me. Currently, it’s what we don’t know about Obama that will hurt us and what the press seems utterly disinterested in reporting.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News.
3 Responses to “The Myth Of The Free Press”
September 25 2008 / 7:45 pm
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In the old days, newspapers were quite clear where their sympathies lay, with names like “Democrat-Register” or “Dispatch Republican.”
And nothing wrong with that either. Phil Rizzuto was a loyal Yankee, but in 40 years as an announcer, never lied about the score…
September 25 2008 / 10:22 pm
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In 1987, when I moved from Illinois to California, Chicago had two newspapers. One was mildly conservative–the Tribune–and one was mildly liberal–the Sun-Times.
In 1995, when I moved from California back to Illinois, Chicago had two newspapers. One was mildly liberal–the Sun Times–and one was extremely liberal–the Tribune. Yet the Tribune is the “Republican” newspaper.
Such is life in the People’s Republic of Illinois.
September 30 2008 / 7:29 am
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You have hit upon a topic of great interest to me as my grandfather was a newspaper editor for 40 years or more and as a child, I loved listening to his stories. The problem I have with the MSM today is that the constant insertion of “editorial” content, i.e. bias, has left us with a situation where thinking people just take everything that’s presented with a serious dose of skepticism. So, at the end of the day, I’m left with very few hard facts and no verifiable information. In many respects they are hurting their own cause because I no longer have to actually “watch” a news program to get the spin, I scan the ticker, hit the highlights, “infer” the spin and try to catch on a few facts for me to research the truth of. Recent reports have indicated they are losing viewership in droves. Is it any wonder? Then we have another effect, that is that there are a large number of people I encounter on a regular basis for whom the propaganda has become fact. In conversation they reflexively recite the spin. Conversation with them is impossible and all one can do is listen and nod and exit stage left at the earliest opportunity. I don’t necessarily blame them for this. They have become the product of the the steady drumbeat of daily indoctrination. And honestly, it’s not just liberal MSM it’s the right-wing talk show drones as well. But whether it’s “right” or “left” the indoctrination has left us with no room for debate and without verifiable fact, (without endless hours of independent research).