Thursday, June 23, 2005
10 minutes with 
: PBS
NPR has been doing a running report on new ideas in nursing homes. While this is a tremendously vital area when it comes to improving the quality of life for many of the nation's elderly, it totally puts me to sleep. Therefore, I must draw upon other news sources, and since I watched about 10 minutes of The Daily Show last night, and since Jon Stewart the same level of neutral objectivity as do the journalists working for Morning Edition, I thought his show would be an appropriate substitute.
Imagine my surprise as Stewart brought out paleoliberal hack/"journalist" Bill Moyers to discuss, of all things, the evil Republican attempts to bring some degree of balance to the public airwaves. Lemme repeat that, Stewart brought Bill Moyers -- a committed left-winger and former PBS personality -- to discuss the objective nature of PBS. This is roughly equivalent to inviting a casino owner to discuss the pros and cons of gambling. Hell, even the World Socialist Web Site has his back on this issue.
The interview itself made me wonder, if I often do, whether some liberals are evil or just incredibly deluded. Being the great person that I am, I'm willing to give them the benefit of a doubt and call it the latter. From what I can tell from the interview, Moyers thinks that journalism is objective if (1) it takes a position counter to the "government line" and/or (2) journalists get both sides of a story.
The former assertion is almost too silly to address. Certainly, there wouldn't be any objectivity if the administration directly reported the news, but to assume the opposite is true is a logical fallacy and would result in a similar lack of objectivity. If not, then we should all be reading the New Socialist for accurate, unadulterated objectivity.
As for the latter assertion, Moyers (and the fawning Stewart) were just being downright disingenuous. There are many ways to influence the news other than just reporting one side of the story. The easiest way to influence content is by choosing to only report stories that are unflattering to a certain political viewpoint. Put another way, while an NPR listener would be likely to hear plenty of stories about some Bush action that is allegedly harming the "poor and disenfranchised," but good luck hearing stories about how some Democrat supported regulation is strangling small business or about how some new tax is killing economic growth.
Moyers, Stewart and their partisan ilk can continue to complain all they want that the Administration is attempting to turn PBS into an organ of the Republican Party, but until it isn't an organ for the Democrat Party their credibility will be a tad strained.
Imagine my surprise as Stewart brought out paleoliberal hack/"journalist" Bill Moyers to discuss, of all things, the evil Republican attempts to bring some degree of balance to the public airwaves. Lemme repeat that, Stewart brought Bill Moyers -- a committed left-winger and former PBS personality -- to discuss the objective nature of PBS. This is roughly equivalent to inviting a casino owner to discuss the pros and cons of gambling. Hell, even the World Socialist Web Site has his back on this issue.
The interview itself made me wonder, if I often do, whether some liberals are evil or just incredibly deluded. Being the great person that I am, I'm willing to give them the benefit of a doubt and call it the latter. From what I can tell from the interview, Moyers thinks that journalism is objective if (1) it takes a position counter to the "government line" and/or (2) journalists get both sides of a story.
The former assertion is almost too silly to address. Certainly, there wouldn't be any objectivity if the administration directly reported the news, but to assume the opposite is true is a logical fallacy and would result in a similar lack of objectivity. If not, then we should all be reading the New Socialist for accurate, unadulterated objectivity.
As for the latter assertion, Moyers (and the fawning Stewart) were just being downright disingenuous. There are many ways to influence the news other than just reporting one side of the story. The easiest way to influence content is by choosing to only report stories that are unflattering to a certain political viewpoint. Put another way, while an NPR listener would be likely to hear plenty of stories about some Bush action that is allegedly harming the "poor and disenfranchised," but good luck hearing stories about how some Democrat supported regulation is strangling small business or about how some new tax is killing economic growth.
Moyers, Stewart and their partisan ilk can continue to complain all they want that the Administration is attempting to turn PBS into an organ of the Republican Party, but until it isn't an organ for the Democrat Party their credibility will be a tad strained.
Centinel 12:49 PM #