Buy Ass? Not Me!
Unless you have been living in a cave in a remote part of the world, you have probably noticed the brouhaha brewing over the “allegedly” fake documents of George W. Bush’s National Guard service that C-BS has been using to slander the President. Although this story is a microcosmic case study of the bias that has been occurring in the media at large for years, if you are holding out hope that this will cause the rest of the media, or even C-BS to evaluate and change this bias, sorry “alleged” bias, then I have a nice little lakeside piece of land in Nairobi in which I would like to interest you.
The big three, NBC, C-BS, and ABC have for many years been the “Johns” for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. This allegiance is so inculcated into the media culture that it has become the norm. The problem as Bernie Goldberg points out in his book, “Bias,” (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0895261901/103-3604830-7805461) is two fold, not only does the national media not recognize that they have a bias; they react violently should someone suggest that they do. The situation is very similar to an alcoholic who refuses to admit that he drinks abnormally: “What are you talking about? Everyone I know drinks as much as I do.” So the conclusion is that his drinking is OK, rather than the more likely conclusion that he primarily hangs out with other alcoholics. After all, if you’re a big drinker, your not going to spend a lot of time at your tee-toddling, temperance minded aunt’s house. Your view of her is that she is a bit kooky and very much out of the mainstream. The reality is however; the aunt is much more in the mainstream than the alcoholic. Her views are much more closely aligned with the population at large, than are his.
Although the alcoholic is constantly being barraged by evidence that contradicts his worldview, i.e., I am a normal drinker, he has developed a defense system that will not allow him to see the truth. Should one of his drinking buddies die from drinking too much, and smashing his car into a concrete wall at 60 mph, he will talk about what a lousy driver the guy was, but see no connection between himself, and his dead friend.
This is what will happen in the media with the Dan Rather Forgery-gate story. People will feel sorry for Dan. He may even get fired. But no one in the rest of the media will draw the conclusion that this happened because Rather is biased towards the liberal side. They will conclude that his zealousness for a good story clouded his judgment. They will admonish their fellow alcoholics, oops, sorry, journalist to not do the same. In the end, everything will return to business as usual. After all, how can there possibly be a bias in the media, when the media has investigated media bias, and found none
~Erthona © 2004
Do not confuse a working writer, with one who is getting paid.
In the great palacious edificeof pseudo higher education,
breathing in the, rancid, acrid, rarefied air,
of the officious offal (who can't, so they teach),
the sophomoric acolytes eulogize, memorize, and romanticize,
those writers of genius gone.
Perceiving clearly, and looking far and long,
we see rare were those whose writing was their sustenance,
and fewer still who made more than a bare pittance.
© Dale B. Tisdale Spring 2002
The big three, NBC, C-BS, and ABC have for many years been the “Johns” for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. This allegiance is so inculcated into the media culture that it has become the norm. The problem as Bernie Goldberg points out in his book, “Bias,” (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0895261901/103-3604830-7805461) is two fold, not only does the national media not recognize that they have a bias; they react violently should someone suggest that they do. The situation is very similar to an alcoholic who refuses to admit that he drinks abnormally: “What are you talking about? Everyone I know drinks as much as I do.” So the conclusion is that his drinking is OK, rather than the more likely conclusion that he primarily hangs out with other alcoholics. After all, if you’re a big drinker, your not going to spend a lot of time at your tee-toddling, temperance minded aunt’s house. Your view of her is that she is a bit kooky and very much out of the mainstream. The reality is however; the aunt is much more in the mainstream than the alcoholic. Her views are much more closely aligned with the population at large, than are his.
Although the alcoholic is constantly being barraged by evidence that contradicts his worldview, i.e., I am a normal drinker, he has developed a defense system that will not allow him to see the truth. Should one of his drinking buddies die from drinking too much, and smashing his car into a concrete wall at 60 mph, he will talk about what a lousy driver the guy was, but see no connection between himself, and his dead friend.
This is what will happen in the media with the Dan Rather Forgery-gate story. People will feel sorry for Dan. He may even get fired. But no one in the rest of the media will draw the conclusion that this happened because Rather is biased towards the liberal side. They will conclude that his zealousness for a good story clouded his judgment. They will admonish their fellow alcoholics, oops, sorry, journalist to not do the same. In the end, everything will return to business as usual. After all, how can there possibly be a bias in the media, when the media has investigated media bias, and found none
~Erthona © 2004
Do not confuse a working writer, with one who is getting paid.
In the great palacious edificeof pseudo higher education,
breathing in the, rancid, acrid, rarefied air,
of the officious offal (who can't, so they teach),
the sophomoric acolytes eulogize, memorize, and romanticize,
those writers of genius gone.
Perceiving clearly, and looking far and long,
we see rare were those whose writing was their sustenance,
and fewer still who made more than a bare pittance.
© Dale B. Tisdale Spring 2002
posted by Tharmas Erthona at 10:13 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home