Help teach this TX teacher to think straight re: media bias

[grasswire]

The Amarillo paper has an op-ed written by an English teacher. It is so fully of foggy thinking and propaganda to be almost laughable. This guy influences young minds every day. Won't you write a letter to the newspaper to encourage him to get beyond propaganda?

Web-posted Sunday, April 25, 2004
Guest Column: Dear Network Anchors: Your bias shows in every newscast

By Mike Bellah
Opinion


Dear Dan, Peter and Tom,
I know you've been wondering where viewers like me have gone. I've read some of the theories put forth in recent studies, and I need to set the record straight. We aren't too busy. We haven't stopped watching nightly news.

No, most of us - people you would label as conservatives - have stopped watching because you don't present our perspective anymore. It wasn't that long ago that we welcomed you into our homes every evening, and, whether the news was negative (the downing of PanAm 103) or positive (the success of a space shuttle mission), we felt united in the experience.

As Americans of different political persuasions, we grieved or celebrated together.

Of course, there were controversial issues even then (the abortion debate, for instance), but we still felt represented. It seemed to us that you strove for objectivity. Even though we knew you favored the more liberal side of the issue, you covered both perspectives. We appreciated that and respected you for it.

But then came the election of 2000 and the Florida recount, and, from the perspective of people like me, everything changed. Your stories led with the liberal point of view: "The Gore vote is 'undercounted' in Florida." "The U.S. Supreme Court 'gives' the election to George W. Bush." If our view was presented at all, it came from an interview with a conservative wacko who made us look foolish and out of touch.

No longer was your political commentary reserved for the end of newscasts and clearly marked as commentary; it permeated the hard news itself - a raised eyebrow here, a grimace there. Stories we thought were important (the Democratic effort to throw out the votes of our soldiers stationed overseas) were either left out or buried.

So, to get the whole news, we found other sources: The Fox News Channel, The Drudge Report on the Internet, talk radio.

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/042504/opi_guest.shtml

[salvorhardin]

1. Not their job to present your "perspective"

It's their job to report events relevant to your life on world, national, state and local levels in an accurate way. I would argue none of the television news programs do so anymore with possibly a slight exception for the Newshour on PBS (maybe). Your "perspective" should not enter into the issue at all. Of course, that's assuming you want to be informed and not just have your prejudices and preconceptions confirmed.

At least that's what I'd say to this nitwit (who probably wants "creation science" taught alongside or in place of evolution).