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| Thursday, February 10, 2005 |
| New Poll 'o the Week
How do you rate the MAINSTREAM media?
Any comments?
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posted by Jack Mercer @ 2/10/2005 06:12:00 PM   |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Speaking as someone who's spent the better part of her her eight years since college graduation in newsrooms, it's true that reporters tend to be more socially liberal. I've heard a couple theories about why this is, and I don't know if either of them are true: 1) pretty much all reporters have college degrees, and some studies have shown that college graduates tend to be liberal; and 2) reporting jobs pay very poorly (starting salaries for elementary school teachers are higher) and conservatives tend to be perceived are more interested in jobs that pay well. Yes, both these theories promote a dim view of conservatives, but they are not mine; just one's I've heard -- both from Independents.
All that said, it is DEFINITELY true that there is a trend toward consolidation of newspaper ownership, and these conglomerates are big business, right-leaning, definitely NOT liberal. So if there's really a liberal bias in newspapers, I reckon there's change in the offing. (Note the purchase of the San Francisco -- you heard me, San Francisco -- Examiner (see http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/a/2004/02/19/state1747EST0169.DTL) by ultra-conservative Philip Anschutz (see http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/20/MNGSF54RDN1.DTL.)
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I rate them as wildly liberal, swaying in the wind, fear-mongers who also divulge too much information about security matters.
Hen
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Kathy, Walter Cronkite made the statement: "We are more humanistic than hard-line conservatives. It comes, I think, from our journalistic apprenticeships, from how we came up through the ranks, from assistant to the police reporter, then the police reporter, and so on. We covered the disasters, we spent time in the poorer areas of our cities and towns, we've seen the seamier side of the world. . . . I think from that we learn to be liberal."
I am hard at work trying to define "liberal" in today's terms. (Unlike Berkeley, I don't have 40 research assistants to do all my work so:) I think there are two kinds of contemporary liberals and I hope to write a Snipet soon on the topic. In my study, I think there are misperceptions on the right and left that need to be corrected. I will finish this one soon and would appreciate your comments about it.
Hen, I think Bernard Goldberg in his book "Bias" agrees with you. Bernard professed to be a liberal, but was truthful about its unethical impact on his and his fellows reporting. I have a Snipet forthcoming on bias also.
Thanks for your comments all!
j
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Name: Jack Mercer
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"Snipet" (pronounced: snipe - it) is not a word.It is a derivative of two words: "Snipe" and "Snippet".
Miriam Webster defines Snipe as: to aim a carping or snide attack, or: to shoot at exposed individuals (as of an enemy's forces) from a usually concealed point of vantage.
Miriam Webster defines Snippet as: : a small part, piece, or thing; especially : a brief quotable passage.
In short, "Snipets" are brief, snide shots at exposed situations from a concealed vantage point.
WARNING! With due reverence to the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment there is NO comment policy on the News Snipet.
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Speaking as someone who's spent the better part of her her eight years since college graduation in newsrooms, it's true that reporters tend to be more socially liberal. I've heard a couple theories about why this is, and I don't know if either of them are true: 1) pretty much all reporters have college degrees, and some studies have shown that college graduates tend to be liberal; and 2) reporting jobs pay very poorly (starting salaries for elementary school teachers are higher) and conservatives tend to be perceived are more interested in jobs that pay well. Yes, both these theories promote a dim view of conservatives, but they are not mine; just one's I've heard -- both from Independents.
All that said, it is DEFINITELY true that there is a trend toward consolidation of newspaper ownership, and these conglomerates are big business, right-leaning, definitely NOT liberal. So if there's really a liberal bias in newspapers, I reckon there's change in the offing. (Note the purchase of the San Francisco -- you heard me, San Francisco -- Examiner (see http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/a/2004/02/19/state1747EST0169.DTL) by ultra-conservative Philip Anschutz (see http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/20/MNGSF54RDN1.DTL.)