Can You Trust the Media?
It's Sad That We Have to Ask This Question
Whitlock said many sports fans have lost their faith in the sports media, primarily because the writers and broadcasters play favorites based on how the athletes treat them.
This got me thinking about the media in general, and it seems that the public has basically lost its faith in the media. Today, we use the media as a jumping-off point to formulate our own opinions.
In a way that is good, because being an independent thinker is better than being a sheep. However, the public used to believe everything that came out of the mouth of CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite.
Contrast that with his successor, Dan Rather, whose career ended in disgrace after the controversy over President Bush's draft record. Rather was accused of believing too quickly in the authenticity of the documents that besmirched the president's record in the National Guard.
Bernard Goldberg used to work at CBS News. In his book, Bias, he said the major networks' news agenda is often determined by the print media, specifically the New York Times.
That would be almost tolerable is the New York Times were considered a completely unbiased newspaper. Instead, the Grey Lady leans to the left, and the networks do the same.
Fox News tried to counter the networks' apparent bias by touting itself as "fair and balanced." It's pretty sad that a basic journalistic principle (being "fair and balanced") has been reduced to an advertising slogan.
Many would argue that Fox News isn't fair and balanced at all, and that it leans as far to the right as the rest of the media does to the left.
So what does this mean to all of us? It means that the good old days of the media are gone. We can't simply believe everything that NBC News, Time magazine or The Washington Post tells us. We have to factor in the left-right bias before making up our minds.
A lot of us tend to pick and choose our media outlets based on what we want to hear. Frankly, I would rather listen to the side that I don't agree with, just to know what they are up to. Ultimately, the only people we can trust to interpret the news is ourselves.
Published by Jeff D Gorman
Jeff Gorman is a journalist for a local newspaper, editor for BleacherReport.com and a legal writer for CNP. When he isn't writing he's pursuing his sports broadcasting career. When you need a profession... View profile
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