We Opine, You Decide
Howard Kurtz posted an article yesterday for the Washington Post concerning a new study that purports to analyze the degree to which various cable news networks insert opinion into their broadcasts:
Howard Kurtz - March 14th, 2005 In covering the Iraq war last year, 73 percent of the stories on Fox News included the opinions of the anchors and journalists reporting them, a new study says.
By contrast, 29 percent of the war reports on MSNBC and 2 percent of those on CNN included the journalists' own views.
These findings -- the figures were similar for coverage of other stories -- "seem to challenge" Fox's slogan of "we report, you decide," says the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The findings -- assuming they're accurate -- do seem to undermine the "we report, you decide" slogan (though only slightly). It doesn't undermine the more-maligned "fair and balanced" catchphrase, though.
Ultimately, this all comes down to leveling with people. For years we held the bizarre notion that you could (and should) seperate personal opinion from factual reporting when presenting the news. But as numerous media-related scandals and accusations of bias have shown us, it's simply not possible. People cannot reliably compartmentalize their minds.
The solution to media bias, then, is not to fight a hopeless war by maintaing a facade of objectivity, but to make bias and opinion as transparent as possible. They cannot be eradicated, so better to cast light on them. Case in point: Kurtz's article points out that the study in question found Fox to be "more deeply sourced than its rivals." Opinion is fine, so long as it is accompanied by transparency.
This, of course, is why blogs are becoming so popular; their leanings are exposed for all to see, and they trust their readers to take that into account. Could the same principle explain why the most popular cable news network (by far) is also the one which is apparently most likely to include opinion in its reports?
You decide.
» March 16th, 2005
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