655,000 Iraqis die because of war - CNN headline (Page 4)

phoenixazul - 2006-10-12 4:41 PM ACtually, we ARE required to read the Q&A from Playboy for our Interviewing class...they've got some of the best style in the business.

gullahcracker - 2006-10-12 4:43 PM

You make an excellent point about local news. But the "news" portion of news is usually unbiased.
But in judging bias we, as a news using community, are poor judges. Any news we don't like we brush aside as biased. If a report says Clinton is a womanizing hoe chaser, although I know it's true, I'm inclined to believe the reporter's bias against Clinton. If another reporter says W is a drunken imbecile who couldn't tell the truth if his country depended on it , I'd probably agree. That's my bias not the medias. So is there such a thing as media bias, well yes, but it pales in comparasion to our own bias and our expectations of reporters.

Scout7 - 2006-10-12 4:48 PM



See, I disagree. The news portion can show a bias based on the stories shown, and how information is presented. Just like you said. And you are right, our personal bias does reflect in our judgement of the media as well. But, again, if your primary sources are biased to the left, your stories will all have a left-leaning slant to them. That does not mean that the information is wrong, just that it is presented to reflect someone's viewpoint.

phoenixazul - 2006-10-12 4:51 PM
Something important to note on the local vs. national news take...local news can take the time to focus on "positive" stuff, because they are invested in local communities and issues, plus they have the sort of contacts and sources within the community that they can build relationships and reliable information pumps.. National news media gets broadcast to milllions of people a day, its hard to do that sort of reporting when you've got to cover national and international news in x amount of time.

Scout7 - 2006-10-12 4:55 PM



"Positive"? *Snerk*. You should try watching the local news in Philly. So far this week, we've gotten coverage on a hostage situation (maybe 10 miles or less from my house), couple murders, several accidents, and random other "positive" stories. Most of those are reserved for the slightly less news-oriented local morning shows.