I work at a CBS news radio station (no it isn't just like that tv show). I get pissed off at everyone who just says news stations suck the master teat of the parent company or "Mainstream media spins the news to fit their political preference" without actually thinking it through.

First, i don't know a reporter who wouldn't love to break a story about viacom or infinity. Those companies are so huge that breaking that story would make a career. Nobody can be fired for telling the truth.

Second, the dan rather issue: yes, dan rather rushed into the story. yes, he gave false information. yes, he is guilty of irresponsible journalism. BUT NO, it wasn't an intentional effort to screw the bush administration. I think he believed the documents were true. I think he wanted the documents to be authentic, and this let him not check them as much as he could/should... but this isn't symptomatic of the entire industry.

As for spinning the news, i don't think we *KNOWINGLY* or *INTENTIONALLY* spin the news. By virtue of being human beings, we have opinions... especially after working in and covering politics for so long. This affects the way we see things which will in turn affect the way we write and edit tape.

What does all this mean for you, the average citizen? watch cnn. watch cbs. watch fox news. read more than 1 newspaper. if you don't have time for all this (understandably), watch one of the networks one night... next night watch another.... use your own mind and don't take what you hear in the news as fact.. because by virtue of us being humans, it will have a slant.


My radio station's goal is to get about the same number of complaints from each side of the division line. most of the time we achieve it, and it tells us we are getting 'relatively' fair news on the air.

I've been preaching this for a long time. Great post.

I think for the most part, news (at least the major outlets) is spun towards ratings. So from the major networks, we get the junk that they think we want to see (OJ, Lacy Peterson, Melissa Smart, OJ, Kobe, etc.) instead of "real" news that affects our lives.

As boring as it is, that's why I usually watch the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. It seems to not give in as much to the normal ratings trap.

Not to bash what you do for a living but I have two complaints and since you're the ony representative of the media here, I guess I'll tell them to you.

The part I reposted I think highlights a large part of the problem with our media. In trying to get the same number of complaints from both sides it means you had to air a piece that had both sides of the issue. Well I think that in an attempt to be overly fair, we now have a media that goes to far in expressing both sides of the story. For example, if you were reporting on the Holocaust would you have on the Nazi viewpoint just for balance? Hell no, because we all think they are crazy. The job of the news is to find the truth, not all sides of the debate. I've seen far too many news reports where they get the fringe element to comment just to have the other viewpoint. Well the common viewer doesn't know that it's a fringe viewpoint, they only see that it has equal time with the legit viewpoint. We've sacraficed truth for "fairness."

Secondly especially with the elections, the news panders far too much to what the candidates want the issues to be, especially on the negative side. You have far too many news reports about what an add says or what a candidates does bashing another one asking "well do you think this will hurt or help X candidate" Well by airing that, you're making it an issue. The media gave more legs to the Kery "Cheny's daughter is gay" than ever would've happened had there been actual reporting on the debate. I think news organizations are so afraid of not getting the story they just report whatever each side wants them to in order to stay in the mix in case a real story breaks.

that is a very good point. i think it's an unfortunate side affect of working in capitalist model. but the only alternatives are 1) state-run media or 2) less accessable news sources... and fewer of them because of the low profit-margins created by bad ratings.