Thursday, August 06, 2009

Cronkite's Heir

The whole thing is good, but the payoff at the end is freaking awesome.

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17 comments:

steves said...

Cronkite's Heir?!?! I hope you are being funny. Stewart was a great check on Bush, but he is turning into a shill for Obama. Balko says it much better than I could.

Noah said...

A shill for Obama, steve? Or simply calling out Fox News for more of their fucking lies and bullshit. He was a great check on Bush, but he's an equally great check against an admittedly-biased news channel. If that makes him an Obama shill then I guess one of us doesn't understand what a shill is.

At any rate, nice work from the writers at TDS. It all comes together in the last 15 seconds.

Bob said...

"...but he is turning into a shill for Obama."

Wouldn't that mean Fox was a shill for Bush?

steves said...

Nothing wrong with calling out FN, but I just don't see him being the same critic for Obama as he was for Bush. Did you read the article? I watched the clips and tend to agree with Balko in this case.

Smitty, a definition of a shill--The term is applied metaphorically to journalists or commentators who have vested interests in or associations with parties in a controversial issue. Usually this takes the form of a show or network pretending to be offering news when in fact they are simply repeating talking points offered by a political party.

If he doesn't apply the same level of scrutiny and criticism to this administration, then I am not interested in watching him. He will keep the party loyalists and people that aren't interested in challenging their beliefs.

Wouldn't that mean Fox was a shill for Bush?

Some of the people on Fox were/are. How come any mention of media bias by men results in some comment about Fox? I don't think I have ever quoted a Fox article. Also, any bias on their part doesn't excuse the years of left-wing bias on most of the other main stream media sources.

steves said...

Oops, the link in my first post is the wrong one. This is the right one.

Mr Furious said...

Balko says repeatedly that he doesn't watch anymore, so I'll only take his criticism for what it's worth—not much.

No question Stewart is partisan. So what? The GOP is serving up plenty of material even without Bush. HE spends much of the rest of the time mockig the rest of the media. And as for Obama, Stewart is often critical—and this is key—ON ACTUAL ISSUES THAT WARRANT IT. In those cases Stewart is usually dead serious (in a funny way) but tends to focus on the policy rather than making fun of Obama.

Mr Furious said...

Is Stewart Crokite? Of course not. And no one believes he is. But I think it's actually true that he is telling the truth more than the rest of the media combined.

FOX News? Fucking fiction network / GOP ad shop.

The rest of the MSM? Serve up nightly helpings of he said / he said, with no real attempt to report which one is actually correct.

John Howard said...

"the years of left-wing bias on most of the other main stream media sources."

Oh, Jesus Christ, what a complete load of bullshit.

Noah said...

the years of left-wing bias on most of the other main stream media sources

WHERE??? WHEN???

So CNN does an (arguable) better job of reporting on a bit of news without all the FOX opinionating-as-reporting schtick...and that makes CNN "left-biased?"

When did actual reporting on an issue mean that a reporter is biased to the left? Isn't that just...reporting???

Jay said...

Is this a discussion where the distinction between a liberal bias in thinking and a left-wing political bias needs to be distinguished? Cronkite was widely quoted as saying that newsmen need to be more liberal in thought because they need to be more open to new and/or controversial ideas than most people to do a good job of investigating and reporting on events. But he was, if I recall correctly, careful to distinguish that from political leanings, which are not necessarily correlated with their way of thinking.

steves said...

Oh, Jesus Christ, what a complete load of bullshit.

Thanks for contributing absolutely nothing towards the discussion.

As for left leaning bias, it depends on the issue and the perspective. To someone that is "left", there probably wouldn't appear to be any left bias. Things would seem just right. Unlike some connservatives, I don't think the bias is a huge problem, nor is it always apparent. In many cases, it has more to do with story selection and a failure to get the "other side" of an issue.

I also think it depends on certain issues. Lets say gun control, since that is something that I actually am fairly well informed about. The MSM (including Fox) has completely given up any pretext of just reporting on this issue and mostly supports gun control. They do this by presenting false information, using incorrect terms, leaving out information that is favorable to the gun rights side, and picking morons to present the pro-gun side. Economist John Lott wrote a book called The Bias Against Guns where he carefully documents this. Informative, but pretty dry reading.

How many of you actually watch Fox, besides excerpts? The news portions aren't all that bad. The editorial stuff is very biased, depending on who they are talking to. People like Hannity are super-biased, and IMO, not all that interesting to watch.

When did actual reporting on an issue mean that a reporter is biased to the left? Isn't that just...reporting???

It depends on how it is done. If a person reports on something and makes no attempt to get the "other side" or question that information that is being presented, then it is lazy reporting, IMO.

Jay, I think you make a good distinction.

steves said...

I never said that there was anything wrong with Stewart being biased, but he loses my interest if he is just going to be all rah rah rah Obama. I took one of those political spectrum tests the other day and I leaned heavily towards the Libertarian side on one axis and slightly to the liberal side on the other. This results in me being annoyed by almost any editorial style news show.

Olbermann can be really good sometimes, but he is typically annoying. Hannity and O'Reilly are mostly unwatchable. About the only TV show that doesn't annoy me is NewsHour, since they try to look at a story with some level of depth and provide experts from both sides.

Noah said...

then it is lazy reporting, IMO

NOW you've hit it steve. It's not about bias. It's about lazy fucking reporting. MSM hacks want to report from their laptops and not do the homework it takes to do a real story. But when some media hack actually puts a story together, it isn't bias. We just don't recognize good reporting.

The other thins you can do with your 2nd amendment example is replace "gun rights" with "health care" and you get "bias."

Not bias. Just lazy.

The MSM (including Fox) has completely given up any pretext of just reporting on this issue and mostly supports hating health care reform. They do this by presenting false information, using incorrect terms, leaving out information that is favorable to the pro health care reform side, and picking morons to present the pro-health care reform side

Bias?

steves said...

I apologize. Media bias is a complex issue that doesn't lend itself to broad generalizations and baseless accusations. I try to avoid getting sucked into these discussions unless it is a specific issue or article. I though Balko made a decent point on that specific DS segment. I also thought Mr. F made a good response and I think he has a point.

Smitty, I think there is still some bias, but I will admit that it is lazy for me to just throw out that ______ is biased without providing an example.

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