Our Media?

I have a gripe. One of many, but let me share this one. As Jerry Seinfeld might be heard saying, “Our media, what’s up with that?” What do I mean by this? It’s that I just that I question the perspective of the news journalists that we are forced fed all day. They say that are balance, and unbiased, but are they? The truth is that they serve everybody, and nobody, at the same time.



Our media was supposed to be built on the principle that news needed to be told, not opinions. But it seems that today’s media is more focused on their own agenda and slant then the news behind the story. For years now, we have heard entities like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News tell us that the elite media is slanted to the left. That they search out to destroy the conservative principles or at the very least, the fairness that news coverage should give. I have seen the articles not only negatively discussing George Bush, but also the attack articles that look for the jugular of the administration. If so called journalists are not trying to find skeptical information to publish, they try to use words that enact some sort of feelings of distrust. And I know words and their use if important to political figures, or George Lahkoff, a Professor from Berkeley, would not have spent 150 pages discussing how he believed the use of words and their placement assured Bush his win. But this gripe is much more than just about politics.

I have two examples of how media is trying to slant the audience towards a certain view. The first is a story I read in my local newspaper, a reprint of an AP story. The headline read something akin to ‘Lava Lamp Kills Student’. I read this thinking, how could a item known for its use as a peace inspiring lamp for hippies ever turn on a unsuspecting student. I read on in the article, wondering how, after decades of it’s use, that one would finally explode, killing it’s owner. I finally arrived at the answer in the last line; the student had tried to heat the glass containing the liquid on the stove, causing the glass to become to hot, shattering and stabbing him. Why didn’t the headline read, “Student’s misuse of popular lamp ends in tragedy.” I still would have been just as interested as the previous title. The other article that I read several months before this had the headline, and I quote, “SUV Kills Woman”. Imagine the shock at thinking that an SUV, a smirk across it’s grill, a twinkle in it’s headlight, rolling down the highway, searching out the best victim to mow down; all the while the driver completely impervious to the SUV’s behavior. I read the article, and at no time in the first 2/3 of the article did it try to steer me from that conclusion. Finally, towards the end, the real reason of the accident was brought to light; the woman killed had run a red light into the path of an oncoming SUV, leaving the driver of the SUV no time to try and miss. To think, running into the path of an oncoming vehicle could cause such devastation. An example of how the media seeks to turn off the public by having them get the feel that SUV’s are bad, drivers are simply cogs in their search for destruction.

I understand there is little to do to change the way journalists conduct their columns, the real problem is a cultural one. The big story sells the paper. The more sales of a type of media, the more advertising one can attract. I don’t even mind that an article has a slant, or even a agenda; but tell me it does. So I can realize how to take the articles impact. Until then I will be forced to continue to read, watch and listen to media I am offered, and decipher the facts, and dispose of the opinion.