US media at 'all-time low'

[applegrove]

US media at 'all-time low'

Julia Day in Qatar
Thursday February 2, 2006


"Arabic-language media have an unprecedented chance to take over as the world's premier news source because trust in their US counterparts plummeted following their "shameful coverage" of the war in Iraq, a conference heard today.
The US media reached an "all-time low" in failing to reflect public opinion and Americans' desire for trusted information, instead acting as a "cheerleader" for war, said Amy Goodman, the executive producer and host of US TV and radio news show Democracy Now!, at a news forum organised by al-Jazeera.

Newsweek's Paris bureau chief, Christopher Dickey, said the US media were dying because of cutbacks and weren't interested in covering the world outside America.

But other delegates questioned whether Arabic media were up to the challenge.

.... SNIP"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1700692,00.html

[Poiuyt]

1. I just took a survey today on media bias

You can take it too:

http://survey.pollingpoint.com/413390

[rucky]

2. I just rated Bill O'Reilly as "Very Entertaining"

does that make me a bad DU-er?

[hvn_nbr_2]

3. Thanks, I just took it.

At the end, they allow you to ask questions or make comments about the survey. Here's what I said:

Some of the questions seemed poorly designed. For example, the one about whether certain individuals were biased or fair: Al Franken is obviously biased, but I also think that he's fair. O'Reilly is biased and unfair. I suspect that Russert and Matthews are personally unbiased but they're also blatantly unfair. Asking about "reporters" opinions is irrelevant, because they do what the corporate masters want them to or they don't stay on the air. Why not ask if GE or AOL/Time/Warner's executives or Rupert Murdoch are fair or are liberal/conservative or Rep/Dem because they determine the content and tilt of the news on their networks? Reporters don't determine that.