My first degree was in radio, TV, and film production, so I remain interested in how the media cover the news. There’s a lot to be disappointed about in the quality of that coverage, and unfortunately, a rather blatant bias sometimes appears.
When Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature passed their bill to scale back collective bargaining for public-sector employees, the Democrats kept yelling “Shame, shame” at them. It was quite a spectacle. Quality coverage of that incident would have emphasized the childish nature of the yelling. Instead, from some of the media outlets, we got sympathetic treatment of the “children” and distorted comparisons:
Another tactic is simply to ignore significant stories and focus on fluff:
If you want to know the source of these tactics, look no further than the journalism school nearest you:
Conservatives, on the whole, get rather brutal treatment, except of course for one type of conservative:
If you were around when Reagan was president, you will recall how he was savaged by the media as a warmonger and a hardhearted politician who couldn’t wait to throw old people out into the street and take away school lunches from children. I guess it’s nice to know the image can change over time—but it’s too bad one has to die first to be treated fairly.