The sad state of US journalism

[Hemi-Cuda]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1...-TIME-Magazine

just another example of how bad it's gotten, i find it pretty much impossible to watch MSNBC or CNN for more than a couple of minutes before wanting to gag. why has it gotten so bad? has the American populace really become that ignorant and the news outlets are just giving them what they want, or is something else driving this push in the last couple of decades to feed useless fluff as news to people while ignoring the real stories?

i love watching The Daily Show because they continually point out how ridiculous the "real" news media has become, but it's pretty sad that they're one of the only places left where you can get an honest look at an important story that gets ignored by the big outlets

[Calgaryborn]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1...-TIME-Magazine

just another example of how bad it's gotten, i find it pretty much impossible to watch MSNBC or CNN for more than a couple of minutes before wanting to gag. why has it gotten so bad? has the American populace really become that ignorant and the news outlets are just giving them what they want, or is something else driving this push in the last couple of decades to feed useless fluff as news to people while ignoring the real stories?

i love watching The Daily Show because they continually point out how ridiculous the "real" news media has become, but it's pretty sad that they're one of the only places left where you can get an honest look at an important story that gets ignored by the big outlets

I do hope you realize that the Daily Show is just as guilty as the major news outlets at misrepresenting a story to enhance a political position. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy the comedy and respect Stewarts prospective but, he is hardly unbiased.

O'Reilly has called Jon on his antics when he has been a guest on the Factor. Stewart has just pointed out that his show is entertainment and therefore shouldn't be measured by journalist standards. I agree with him in part but, I do worry that there are people who don't realize that the Daily Show isn't a good source for news.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Ah...the daily Kos...that bastian of journalistic integrity. Thankfully we have them to point out stuff like this to us....like when they stated as fact that Sarah Palin's youngest child was actually her grandchild.

Integrity. Once you lose it, it's gone forever.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

Ah...the daily Kos...that bastian of journalistic integrity. Thankfully we have them to point out stuff like this to us....like when they stated as fact that Sarah Palin's youngest child was actually her grandchild.

Integrity. Once you lose it, it's gone forever.

So they screwed up, it has nothing to do with the point of this story which is that American news and following close behind Canadian news is more apt to feed us pap than hard news. I like watching the news channels but CNN Headline news seems to have nothing to do with real news, so I never watch it anymore.

This brings up another question, how much do I trust these news services? The answer for me is not very much, and all I get is that there is trouble in Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan etc and trying to draw conclusions is pretty difficult because each country and reporting agency has their biases and agendas.

[Sainters7]

As bad as they can be, its pretty ridiculous when you watch international news too. Ever watched BBC World? Consisently the most over-sensationalized tripe out there, man do they know how to exaggerate. I think news is just bad in general these days, no matter the outlet.

[Temporary_User]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,...111031,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,...111114,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,...110321,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,...101122,00.html

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

It still has the same articles inside. I don't think it's a big deal that they tailor the cover to try and maximize sales.

[Thor]

lol, I love CB's delusions.

[WesternCanadaKing]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

As bad as they can be, its pretty ridiculous when you watch international news too. Ever watched BBC World? Consisently the most over-sensationalized tripe out there, man do they know how to exaggerate. I think news is just bad in general these days, no matter the outlet.

Are you serious? BBC World? I remember the reports they did on the tsunami in Japan being the most emotionless reports on a major disaster that I had ever seen. Switching over to CNN it could not have been any more different.

I watch BBC World every day for the very reason that its not at all sensational. Reports are always just stating what they know about whats going on, and tend to avoid speculation.

EDIT: Just saw the links Temporary_user posted and that pretty much shuts down the argument of the link the OP posted

[SeeBass]

I gladly pay my extra $2 a month just so I can watch Al Jeezera.

They are so far ahead in the Arab Spring coverage, as they should be.

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by Temporary_User

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,...111114,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,...110321,00.html

This was probably your point, but for those who didn't click the links, two of the Daily Kos' examples of "fluff" covers in the U.S. were used in the rest of the world in the weeks that you linked to. This is proof of soft journalism everywhere, but doesn't prove anything about the U.S. vs. the rest of the world. I'll take fluff pieces like the Time cover stories over misleading pieces like the Daily Kos article anyday though.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by WesternCanadaKing

Are you serious? BBC World? I remember the reports they did on the tsunami in Japan being the most emotionless reports on a major disaster that I had ever seen. Switching over to CNN it could not have been any more different.

I watch BBC World every day for the very reason that its not at all sensational. Reports are always just stating what they know about whats going on, and tend to avoid speculation.

EDIT: Just saw the links Temporary_user posted and that pretty much shuts down the argument of the link the OP posted

Ya BBC, not BBC World. Didn't mean to write that. My grandpa's English and always had satellite, I remember watching those stations with him so many times growing up. I used to always get a kick out of how they sensationalized everything. No different than you'd see here, but certainly not any better either.

My mom would bring home magazines from England when she visited family there and I'd flip through em it a lot. I think the Brits are just as celeb-crazy as people here & in the States.

[Thor]

The sad state of news that conforms to your own specific ideology.

[SeeBass]

[Ozy_Flame]

Al-Jazeera FTW. Any Middle East coverage begins and ends with this news channel.

I remember when people were afraid that it was going to be broadcast in the States a few years ago. They're probably the most balanced and interesting major news channel around. Kicks the pants out of pretty much anything else.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Calgaryborn

O'Reilly has called Jon on his antics when he has been a guest on the Factor.

Jon wipes the floor with Bill, every time they meet.

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by Calgaryborn

O'Reilly has called Jon on his antics when he has been a guest on the Factor. Stewart has just pointed out that his show is entertainment and therefore shouldn't be measured by journalist standards. I agree with him in part but, I do worry that there are people who don't realize that the Daily Show isn't a good source for news.

I have to admit, this is an impressive piece of writing right here. You've managed to discredit John Stewart while at the same time demonstrate the strong foundations of truth evident on Fox News.

CB, I can assure you that people who watch John Stewart are not the ones you need to worry about. Truly.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Thor

The sad state of news that conforms to your own specific ideology.

True.

It's called Hostile Media Phenomenon - the stronger your own bias, the more likely you are to identify media coverage as hostile to your own beliefs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_media_effect

And the groundbreaking study that first named it: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~jpiliavi/965/hwang.pdf

The second part of this is Confirmation Bias . . . . . the more partisan a person is, the more likely they will seek out and give exclusivity to a news source that shares their bias, irregardless of whether or not the source is accurate or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

Fox News built a hugely successful business model on this premise, so much so that other news sources are now following their lead, MSNBC being the most obvious example but from a left wing point of view. The Fox business model is starting to permeate the business to some extent, both to the left and right side of the spectrum. CNN continues to lose ground over a stubborn insistence to try and play the middle.

So, its pretty funny some of you claim you're confining your newsgathering to a single source, like The Daily Show for example. That's not exactly a recommendation of your intelligence or lack of bias. In fact, you're quite normal and no different than a patron of Fox.

My newest, favourite example of this: Donald Rumsfeld was quoted recently as saying he's a huge fan of Al Jazeera. He hated Al Jazeera in the early 2000's when it suited him and now he's a big fan over their coverage of the Arab Spring.

The smartest thing to do is move beyond your comfort zone and view a wide variety of sources because, quite frankly, there are very few orifices of the world that don't get news coverage these days and secondly, the average person, almost without regard to location, has never had as much access to information and contrasting opinions as they do today.

If you're a news junky, this is a Golden age.

Cowperson

[kirant]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

The second part of this is Confirmation Bias . . . . . the more partisan a person is, the more likely they will seek out and give exclusivity to a news source that shares their bias, irregardless of whether or not the source is accurate or not.

You said irregardless

What you said I completely agree with though...journals seem to be leaning more towards conforming their view to utilizing your described Confirmation Bias and Hostile Media Effect. What bugs me though is that it may become more and more difficult to distinguish the bias from fact as this goes on. Media loves to twist stories to their advantage (we've seen examples of this multiple times with hiding facts or overstating a point...or even something as simple as editting voice clips so it sounds more menacing than it is). 1st hand accounts are best, but if we don't have those, we have to assume media is correct...and deciphering three or four different stories for the truth becomes much harder than if these stations didn't throw in as much bias as they do.

[mykalberta]

Time Magazine is in the business of trying to make money. Currently (and rightly so) the US cares more about is state of Economy than what is going on in an area most Americans will never visit.

Why would Time Magazine devote current resources to covering Egypt when the story hasnt been written yet. Time is more of a feature based magazine rather than current news. As it currently looks, the so called Arab Spring in Egypt isnt going so well, why would Time magazine bother covering what is being covered by other sources when its not even finished. When it is finished, however it turns out to be an Arab Spring or an Arab Winter, I will pick up the Time Magazine which chronicles its eventual path how it succeeded or how it failed. From a business perspective Time Warner has CNN to deal with current news, and Time Magazine handles something else.

I pick up a Time Magazine for their features, their unique viewpoint on a story after its complete, I dont buy Time magazine to keep up on current events.

Daily Kos article is even worse than what they are claiming Time Magazine is doing, in 2 of the examples they show, Time magazine did release the Magazine to the US, just on a different date than their International version.