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From: renner@uiucdcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Whoa! WHAT propaganda campaign?
Message-ID: <29200150@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Sep-84 17:33:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.29200150
Posted: Wed Sep 26 17:33:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Sep-84 04:38:00 EDT
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Nf-ID: #R:hou5a:-59200:uiucdcs:29200150:000:1972
Nf-From: uiucdcs!renner    Sep 26 16:33:00 1984

>   The way that propaganda is practiced in our country is by omission.
>   No, our newspapers are not controlled as they are in Guatemala or the
>   Soviet Union, but editors have a tendency to downplay news which is
>   harmful to the image of "America the Good" and upplay news which promotes
>   "Russia the Bad."...		- Jordan Pollack (pollack@uicsl)
    
Not all of this "propaganda" has a conservative aim.  I see much more 
evidence of liberal bias in the news media.  As an example, consider the
great attention given by the news media to the "ketchup is a vegatable"
controversy of 1981.  At the time I figured it was blown out of proportion.
Now it appears to have been fabricated.  For details, read Paul Dolber's
article, "Ketchup for Lunch," excerpted below:

>   From the National Review:
>   "The Washington Post's news writers and columnists had been waging
>   an uproarious food fight with the Reagan Administration over the
>   lunches served in the nation's school cafeterias... Then some
>   killjoy Post editorial writer decided to look into the actual facts
>   about the Administration's school-lunch proposals, and found that
>   the critics were telling some whoppers... "
>   					- Paul Dolber (paul@phs)

Sure looks like the Big Lie to me.  Say it loud and often, and it will be 
believed.  Perhaps this incident was motivated by a desire to sell
newspapers and TV commercials at the expense of reporting the truth.
And perhaps it was politically motivated.  

One might suppose that Jordan and I see different forms of media bias 
because we have different political beliefs.  I believe that there is some
truth in this.  However, it is instructive to examine the professed
political beliefs of reporters and editors as a group, including their
voting record.  The large majority with "liberal" beliefs thus revealed 
renders implausible any theory of a "conservative conspiricy" within 
the news media.

Scott Renner
...ihnp4!uiucdcs!renner