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Thread: News media bias

  1. #1
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
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    News media bias

    This is always a lively subject. I have come to take it for granted that almost no major news outlet - on the left or the right - tries hard to be objective anymore, and that we all just need to read more critically and broadly. Still, it's a subject worth discussing. Here's a start:

    The Graying Lady
    How not to report on tax code reform.

    If you want to see, in an instant, what the New York Times has become, just consider the lead headlines in this morning’s editions of the Times and the Wall Street Journal.

    The Journal headed its story on the Trump tax proposals: “Trump Unveils Broad Tax-Cut Plan.”

    The Times headline was: “Tax Overhaul Would Aid Wealthiest.”

    That headline is, of course, pure propaganda. It’s the sort of headline Pravda would have used in the glory days of the Soviet Communist Party.

    It is the received idea of good tax policy on the left that the tax code should always sock it to the rich so that they pay their “fair share.” But notice that that phrase is never, ever defined. To do so would set an upper limit to what the rich could be taxed. (And, of course, whenever taxes are raised on the rich–the majority of whom now vote Democratic–loopholes are quietly slipped in to make sure they don’t actually pay punitive rates.)

    So even though the Trump Plan would greatly lower taxes for the middle class as well as the rich, that fact is hardly mentioned in the Times‘ coverage of a major news event.

    It is truly sad to see what was once incomparably the greatest newspaper the world has ever known become nothing more than a mouthpiece for the decaying American far left.
    https://www.commentarymagazine.com/a...-graying-lady/

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
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    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
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    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by LA Ute View Post
    This is always a lively subject. I have come to take it for granted that almost no major news outlet - on the left or the right - tries hard to be objective anymore, and that we all just need to read more critically and broadly. Still, it's a subject worth discussing. Here's a start:

    The Graying Lady
    How not to report on tax code reform.



    https://www.commentarymagazine.com/a...-graying-lady/
    The writer's use of the term "decaying far left" is an immediate signal to me to ignore his opinion and to not consider any other point he makes.

    I agree that the discussion of bias in the media has merit, but this "commentary" has no utility to that end.

  3. #3
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LuckyUte View Post
    The writer's use of the term "decaying far left" is an immediate signal to me to ignore his opinion and to not consider any other point he makes.

    I agree that the discussion of bias in the media has merit, but this "commentary" has no utility to that end.
    Fair enough, but it's an opinion piece you're reading not news. Such polemical statements are to be expected. I disagree that he has nothing worthwhile to say just because of that comment. Don't you think the NY Times headline is a problem?

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by LuckyUte View Post
    The writer's use of the term "decaying far left" is an immediate signal to me to ignore his opinion and to not consider any other point he makes.

    I agree that the discussion of bias in the media has merit, but this "commentary" has no utility to that end.
    Well, that article was spot on. If that particular "commentary" leads you to ignore and not consider any point... then you are as closed minded as anyone else.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by LA Ute View Post
    Fair enough, but it's an opinion piece you're reading not news. Such polemical statements are to be expected. I disagree that he has nothing worthwhile to say just because of that comment. Don't you think the NY Times headline is a problem?
    Yes, I am fully aware the commentary published on "Commentary" is an opinion piece and not news. I said as much in my earlier reply and was careful to state that the piece cited was not helpful in a discussion of media bias (not the tax plan itself) because of the polemics. To continue with the cited piece, I believe that one can provide opinions that are useful to discussion on the nature of media bias without polemics such as... "decaying American far left", Soviet era propaganda, and Pravda. Having a discussion on media bias with the author, I believe, would be useless.

    That said, is the headline untrue? I don't know, I haven't studied the tax plan enough to know what it contains or who it benefits, though I can guess. However, if the headline is even partly true (and the headline certainly obscures rather than illuminates) and going to the discussion of media bias (studiously avoiding a discussion of the tax plan itself), can we call it "propaganda"? That choice of words, to me, is problematic.

    I do have a problem with the NYT essentially putting out a click-baitey headline that does nothing but obscure the issue, and they rightly need to be much better. Both the NYT and the WashPost have recently been on the offensive with advertising to boost online and paper subscriptions that essentially try to take advantage of the "fake news" meme. I get almost daily emails from the WashPost focusing on the phrase "Democracy dies in Darkness" and the NYT focusing on "Journalism" and "Getting it Right". At least with the NYT, with the headline in question, did they get it right, even if click-baitey? I don't know, but if even partly true, is it bias?

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Devildog View Post
    Well, that article was spot on. If that particular "commentary" leads you to ignore and not consider any point... then you are as closed minded as anyone else.
    Thanks for sharing your opinion that you agree with the writer's opinion. However, neither your opinion nor the writer's lend anything constructive to the discussion of media bias. Of course, that is just my opinion.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by LuckyUte View Post
    Thanks for sharing your opinion that you agree with the writer's opinion. However, neither your opinion nor the writer's lend anything constructive to the discussion of media bias. Of course, that is just my opinion.
    Well, we seem to all have our minds made up. Maybe that is a big part of the reason the country is so polarized.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by LA Ute View Post
    This is always a lively subject. I have come to take it for granted that almost no major news outlet - on the left or the right - tries hard to be objective anymore, and that we all just need to read more critically and broadly. Still, it's a subject worth discussing. Here's a start:

    The Graying Lady
    How not to report on tax code reform.



    https://www.commentarymagazine.com/a...-graying-lady/
    Speaking of headlines


    Wall Street JournalVerified account @WSJ 53m53 minutes agoMore



    Big winners in Donald Trump’s tax plan: The wealthy



    Big Winners in Donald Trump’s Tax Plan: The Wealthy

    Proposals like eliminating the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax favor affluent households


  9. #9
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by concerned View Post
    Speaking of headlines


    Wall Street JournalVerified account @WSJ 53m53 minutes agoMore



    Big winners in Donald Trump’s tax plan: The wealthy



    Big Winners in Donald Trump’s Tax Plan: The Wealthy

    Proposals like eliminating the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax favor affluent households
    I don't like that. It reduces a news story to an editorial right off the bat. I admit I have not read the story. I'm actually walking to a meeting and looking like an idiot, talking into my iPhone as I stroll down the street.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

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