"We don't need no stinkin' bias!"
The Muskegon Chronicle offered as their "proof of non-bias" the fact that they endorsed a similar number of demos and GOPers in the last election. Conveniently ignoring that they almost always endorse incumbents and Ottawa county had no democrat incumbents. Sophistry is the game.
When Anger Breeds Complacency
An interesting exchange from an interview on PBS's "Frontline" with Len Downie, executive editor of the Washington Post:
Every person we speak with who would identify themselves [sic] as a conservative journalist says: "Bias? If you think we're biased, look at The Washington Post, that liberal newspaper."
All I can say is that people just need to read us and then decide whether we're liberal or not. We're an independent newspaper. We have a strict separation, between the editorial page--which, last I heard, is a supporter, for instance, of the Iraq war and considered by many liberals to be rather conservative--and our news gathering.
In our news gathering, we seek to be strictly nonpartisan and nonideological. We're human beings, we make mistakes, but we do not set out to be, nor do I think we are, liberal. And judging from my e-mail traffic in recent years, the left is much more critical, and much more angrily critical, of our coverage than the right has been.
The implication of that last comment is that because the left is angrier than the right with the Post, the Post must not be biased toward the left. But this is a non sequitur. It seems to us more likely that (a) the Post is biased toward the left, but not biased enough to satisfy the Angry Left, (b) the left is angrier at this moment than the right is.
But note how the Angry Left's anger bolsters Downie's complacency: Both left and right accuse the Post of bias, therefore the Post must not be biased. We've long argued that the liberal media ill-serve liberal politicians by reflecting rather than challenging their prejudices (see this article, for example). By making it easier for journalists to deny that they are biased, the Angry Left may be exacerbating this problem.
The Muskegon Chronicle offered as their "proof of non-bias" the fact that they endorsed a similar number of demos and GOPers in the last election. Conveniently ignoring that they almost always endorse incumbents and Ottawa county had no democrat incumbents. Sophistry is the game.
When Anger Breeds Complacency
An interesting exchange from an interview on PBS's "Frontline" with Len Downie, executive editor of the Washington Post:
Every person we speak with who would identify themselves [sic] as a conservative journalist says: "Bias? If you think we're biased, look at The Washington Post, that liberal newspaper."
All I can say is that people just need to read us and then decide whether we're liberal or not. We're an independent newspaper. We have a strict separation, between the editorial page--which, last I heard, is a supporter, for instance, of the Iraq war and considered by many liberals to be rather conservative--and our news gathering.
In our news gathering, we seek to be strictly nonpartisan and nonideological. We're human beings, we make mistakes, but we do not set out to be, nor do I think we are, liberal. And judging from my e-mail traffic in recent years, the left is much more critical, and much more angrily critical, of our coverage than the right has been.
The implication of that last comment is that because the left is angrier than the right with the Post, the Post must not be biased toward the left. But this is a non sequitur. It seems to us more likely that (a) the Post is biased toward the left, but not biased enough to satisfy the Angry Left, (b) the left is angrier at this moment than the right is.
But note how the Angry Left's anger bolsters Downie's complacency: Both left and right accuse the Post of bias, therefore the Post must not be biased. We've long argued that the liberal media ill-serve liberal politicians by reflecting rather than challenging their prejudices (see this article, for example). By making it easier for journalists to deny that they are biased, the Angry Left may be exacerbating this problem.
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