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From: simard@loral.UUCP (Ray Simard)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Liberal media bias
Message-ID: <566@loral.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Oct-84 15:41:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: loral.566
Posted: Wed Oct 17 15:41:24 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Oct-84 10:04:52 EDT
References: <160@rlgvax.UUCP> <> <558@loral.UUCP> <290@whuxl.UUCP>
Reply-To: simard@loral.UUCP (Ray Simard)
Distribution: net
Organization: Loral Instrumentation, San Diego, CA
Lines: 103
Summary: 

[]
In article <290@whuxl.UUCP> orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) writes:
>I am in total agreement that the shift from newspaper reading to TV as the
>major source of most people's news is a bad thing. I would argue that it is
>precisely this shift that accounts for Reagan's popularity...

     No doubt Reagan has used television to cast himself in the most  favor-
able  light  -  what  politician  hasn't,  as  far  as possible for him/her?
Nevertheless, among the persons I know who support  Reagan  (and  there  are
many),  it  is  precisely  his policies that we find appealing. I'll refrain
from further discussion here to keep the focus on the subject,  and  discuss
Reagan's policies in other postings.

>I do not think the electronic media are liberal--let's look at the Iranian
>hostage situation as the perfect example--every day for months they began
>their broadcasts with "the 100th day of the hostages". Since we have deployed
>Cruise missiles we are only ten minutes away from nuclear war--do we hear
>every broadcast begin "this is the 300th day our country is ten minutes
>away from nuclear war"?

     I can't agree with these examples. The holding of the hostages in  Iran
was  not a partisan issue, with conservatives opposed and liberals in favor.
In the second case, such a statement is obviously  pure  opinion  (one  with
which  I don't agree BTW) and is of an entirely different order of magnitude
that the slanted articles I referred to in my original posting.  I  was  not
pointing  to  the statement of opinion as fact - though it does happen - but
rather how the network news tends to report real facts selectively, and with
sequencing, juxtaposition and packaging that place a coloration on the story
which is definitely liberal.

     I should mention that I am discussing  primarily  the  networks'  news.
Local news services are much like local newspapers, reflecting the tastes of
their owners and management.

>TV news reporting is not necessarily liberal OR conservative--it is
>shallow and sensationalist.  I am very disappointed with the local
>New York TV stations--every broadcast leads off with some fire or accident.
>I would estimate such coverage is half of their broadcast time.
>How does that inform people on anything important?  It is much easier for TV
>to focus on the sensational and visually dramatic than to analyze general
>issues.  They could do actual research and provide some facts and figures-
>but that would take too much work and TV stations have far fewer reporters
>than newspapers.  Hence it is always easier to just send a cameraman out to
>some accident to take some gruesome footage.

     Other than the first phrase of the first sentence, I agree.

>>      Second observation: since it was a nightly event to see the steelworker
>> Joneses  in  Pittsburgh tearful and fretting when things were going sour, is
>> it not equally appropriate to interview the same or different families  when
>> they return to work?

>this is a good example of what I am talking about.
>I don't think that focussing
>on particular cases informs us about the general issue of unemployment.
>Barry Bluestone is an economist who has done statistical studies of hardhit
>industrial areas.  He found that most of those former steelworkers and other
>bluecollar workers laid off ARE going back to work--to jobs like McDonald's.
>The major increase in employment in this economic recovery has occurred in
>precisely such low-level service jobs--NOT in good jobs. (tho some autoworkers
>and others have been recalled-- I will not deny that fact)
>Unfortunately the number of Americans reading newspapers has been steadily
>declining for years.
>Tim Sevener
>whuxl!orb

     Actually, a substantial number of autoworkers have been recalled  -  it
is  the low-key presentation of these stories that lead many to believe that
the number is relatively small.

     One of the points of the above is that it may be true that steelworkers
are  often  re-employed  at  lower levels. The cast made on the news is that
this is a failing of the government (read: Reagan administration)  and  that
some  other  kind of federal policy would change that. No mention is made of
the fact that labor demand in heavy industry is declining  with  more  effi-
cient manufacturing methods, automation and robotics, and changing tastes of
consumers in automobiles and other similar outputs.  There simply will prob-
ably  never  be the need for steelworkers that there once was, just as there
is little demand for stagecoach drivers.  Times change,  and  labor  demands
shift.  Now  the  shift  is toward technology and service, and away from the
smokestack sector. To look at the  network  news,  you'd  think  Reagan  was
responsible for it all.

     More points: Reagan cut school lunches (actually,  cut  the  amount  of
INCREASE  from  earlier  proposals). How was it reported? School lunchrooms,
mostly in low-income areas, with lovable urchins devouring their meals. What
about  the  other  side: middle-to-upper income family children eating their
subsidized lunches, or just as often, dumping large  portions  of  them  and
buying  Twinkies.  That was as much a valid and real part of the discussion,
but it was NOT part of the TV news.

     Against this background, one refreshing exception stands out:  the  PBS
McNeil/Lehrer  report  (maybe it's MacNeil, I'm not sure...) which (usually)
scrupulously maintains a policy of  allowing  persons  from  both  sides  of
issues a forum, and questioning is a highly objective manner.

-- 
[     I am not a stranger, but a friend you haven't met yet     ]

Ray Simard
Loral Instrumentation, San Diego
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