Media Bias Outrage of the Week - Losing Faith

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Home Media Bias Outrage/Week Outrage of the Month Outrage Archive On The Offensive On The Offensive Archive Hot Topic Links Special Features Activism Press Releases Rolodex Activist Handbook Thread Archive Identify Media Bias Mission Statement Guestbook Contact Us	Losing Faith 06/09/2003 The public has lost faith in the major media outlets and NBC's Jim Avila thinks he knows why. This dire situation can be blamed on the twin evils of conservative pro-corporate bias and the Fox News Channel. And here we - the public - sit thinking it had something to do with the way we've been lied to over and over again! Avila began his June 5 report on NBC Nightly News by bemoaning how "a 2002 Pew Research study shows that only 35 percent of the public trust news organizations to 'get the facts straight.'" Perhaps now that the New York Times has hit bottom in the public eye, NBC is getting around to discussing the implications of this year-old report. Avila continued: "Jayson Blair is just the latest example of journalistic fraud chipping away at an industry built on trust…Media watchdogs complain almost daily of bias, charging that some stories are deliberately ignored." Steve Rendell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a decidedly left-wing organization: "The cynicism that people have about media isn't just about Jayson Blair and Mike Barnicle. It's about the whole corporate climate, where people feel they're being sold to rather than informed." Avila, over graphics of the Fox News Channel: "And some experts say opinion-based journalism, so popular on cable TV, undercuts credibility. Viewers now charge bias against any news they don't agree with." Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publisher magazine: "They often disagree with stories because they don't agree with the political outlook or the revelations that are in those stories." Avila: "And journalistic missteps like those in the New York Times only give ammunition to those who believe even true stores are fiction." It's difficult not to chuckle - well, okay, hee-haw loudly and rudely - at this sad attempt to displace the source of media bias from the shoulders of the elite media enthroned at ABCNBCBS and the New York Times. Certainly opinion-based journalism pre-dates Fox News Channel, and even cable TV for that matter. Conservative media bias activists would agree with the liberal FAIR's observation that the viewing public has begun to feel they are being "sold to". How long have we complained about the major media shilling for the Democrats? Is it any wonder that viewers are fleeing in droves to the Fox News Channel where they at least have a chance to hear conservative, liberal and in-between spokespersons defend their views? I strongly suspect that the biggest "media bias" crime of the Fox News Channel is not that they are solely conservative in their presentation of the news, but that they spend any time at all on the conservative end of the discussion. If you would like to share your thoughts with Mr. Avila concerning the public's loss of trust in the media, the contact information is below. Email: Nightly@NBC.com Jim Avila c/o NBC Nightly News NBC News 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, N.Y. 10112 Read More Here: MRC CyberAlert, 06/06/2003: NBC: Conservative Bias and FNC Undermining Trust in the Media FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting When you feel your personal media bias tolerance gauge rising into the red zone, don't throw stuff at the TV screen! Send your suggestion to outrage@fairpress.org! Each week, one hideous example of media bias will be selected for closer examination. Hmmmmmm . . . Click below for more: