Now This

This blog is now read by more machines than humans: RSS robots, spam-laying insectopoids, echoes of blog-gathering .edu projects. This essentially is the state of affairs that all human activities w

Cleaning Up the Nation

Austin Bay:

If Air America were a conservative radio network its corrupt funding trail and cynical abuse of a poverty program would be front page news at the NY Times and full-time mega-scandal at

Rank Materialism

Freedom. I am now the proud new owner of a Gateway 6020GZ laptop, perfect for students and others with limited means. I can now go into a Starbucks or a Barnes & Noble and look like I'm doing some

Fallujah Fonda

Uh-oh. From the Telegraph comes this exciting news:

Jane Fonda is returning to anti-war activism and embarking on a cross-country tour to call for an end to US military operations in Iraq.

Acros

John Pilger: Partner in Terrorism

In an outrageous piece of terrorist propaganda appearing on the cover of today's New Statesman, John Pilger puts the blame for the 7/7 London attacks not on the terrorists, but rather on Tony Blair:

The Fox Memos II

All of the Fox memos (see my first post on the subject) have now been published. I don't have the patience to read them all, but Media Matters has pulled out some highlights, which I'm going to assume are the ones they think are the most damning.

[T]he pictures from Abu Graeb [sic] prison are disturbing. They have rightly provoked outrage. Today we have a picture -- aired on Al Arabiya -- of an American hostage being held with a scarf over his eyes, clearly against his will. Who's outraged on his behalf? It is important that we keep the Abu Graeb [sic] situation in perspective

The events in Iraq Tuesday are going to be the top story, unless and until something else (or worse) happens. Err on the side of doing too much Iraq rather than not enough. Do not fall into the easy trap of mourning the loss of US lives and asking out loud why are we there? The US is in Iraq to help a country brutalized for 30 years protect the gains made by Operation Iraqi Freedom and set it on the path to democracy. Some people in Iraq don't want that to happen. That is why American GIs are dying. And what we should remind our viewers.

The continuing carnage in Iraq -- mostly the deaths of seven US troops in Sadr City -- is leaving the American military little choice but to punish perpetrators. When this happens, we should be ready to put in context the events that led to it. More than 600 US military dead, attacks on the UN headquarters last year, assassination of Iraqi officials who work with the coalition, the deaths of Spanish troops last fall, the outrage in Fallujah: whatever happens, it is richly deserved.

There is more, but this is the essence of it as far as the war in Iraq goes.

What's clear from those excerpts is that it is Fox's policy to report "bad" war news in the larger context of our purpose there or in the context of preceding events. One could call this "spin", to the extent that what is included as background in a particular story is an editorial decision, and will vary depending on the source. Abuse of this technique is widespread in journalism. Usually, an only somewhat related fact, or an unrelated fact, is introduced to color the reader's or viewer's perception of the new fact that's being reported. Look for the keyword "despite" as a sign that this may be the journalist's aim.

The Fox memos suggest a big-picture background, which is actually somewhat refreshing, considering the apocalyptic sensibility with which much war news is suffused. This apocalyptic sensibility is due in part to showmanship and ratings; the reporter has got to convince you that the story they're delivering is the most important thing going on today, or this month, or this year. It usually isn't.

Here's another editorial policy:

I have always felt, and I said it when I was in Iraq last year, that the most important thing a journalist can do is remind people of the cost of war.

That's Ted Koppel explaining the role of journalism. Ted doesn't think that the reasons to go to war, or what's at stake in a war, are as important as its costs. Is this position more fair and balanced than Fox's? I'd say no.

Another aspect of this controversy is that FNC clearly has decided to cover the war as an American organization- they aren't neutral. They want the US and the coalition to win and don't mind that you know that. Good news is good news and should be highlighted while bad news is, well, bad, but there is a larger context that should be remembered.

Most other major TV news organizations (and in other media too) see this editorial policy as controversial. They believe that they're objective, which in practice almost always translates into disproportionate criticism of the home team in order to prove objectivity (much as multiculturalism almost always results in disproportionate criticism of Western/American culture). Bad news is bad news and should be highlighted while good news is, well, good, but there is a larger context that should be remembered.

Finally, I've noticed a thread in the criticism of the Fox memos that they somehow infringe on a reporter's ability to report a story as he or she sees it or, bizarrely, that they infringe on a reporter's right to free speech. Taking the second, strange concept first, reporters, when on the clock, do not have the right to free speech any more than you or I do. If they disagree with any limits their employer places on them, they can find another job, just as you or I would have to.

The memos do not tell reporters not to report facts. They instruct the reporters on how to report facts. The default ideology for journalists is a leftist one, as has been proven, and this may be true even for most reporters at Fox. The editorial policy makers at CBS, ABC, etc. don't have to instruct their reporters to produce stories that skew left. That's the default product. (If anything, they probably have to curb this tendency.) It's entirely proper for FNC to remind its people that Fox News does not put out the default product.

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