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bounty44 -> RE: College Records Finally Exposed!! (2/12/2015 7:30:43 AM)
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A thing about bias, without necessarily directly responding to anything that was said prior to my posting this. Which is another way of saying it’s really difficult for me to read the name calling and vile insults but I still have something to say.
Glen beck comes from a particular conservative perspective---we might call that a “bias” and perhaps that might fit a narrow definition of the word, but it’s really not in keeping with the spirit of the word as intended by the OP.
For instance when a news stations does 9 reports on president obama’s approval ratings, but 124 on George bush’s, that is bias. These stations, as are newspapers, are charged with reporting the news with objectivity (if we cannot agree on that point, then we are worlds apart) for the purpose of informing people.
So when the press doesn’t make a fuss about obama’s college records, but are already harping about scott walker’s, that’s media bias.
They are not treating two people in more or less the same position, with objectivity. They treat one fellow one way (because they are in agreement with his policies) and the other fellow another way (because they are in disagreement with his policies).
And the media on the whole are overwhelmingly left leaning. When they let their worldviews interfere with their charge to be objective (or another way to put it, fair), they are engaging in bias. This is why, to an extent fox news enjoys the position they do. Despite leftist thinking to the contrary, fox makes an effort of being “fair and balanced.” Yes on the whole the network leans right, but you cannot watch any show on the network without the opposing viewpoints being given tremendous and in many cases equal, airtime. Further, they have plenty of on air personalities, who are anchors or regular commentators, who are not conservatives.
Glen beck on the other hand is not the media. He is an individual person who makes use of the media to share his worldview and his opinions. He does not have the same responsibility or mission as does “the media.” So when glen beck posts what he wants, or talks about what he wants, all he is doing is promulgating his worldview, and he has the freedom to do just that. if we use the accusation “bias” so loosely, then pretty much everyone who has an opinion or particular worldview is “biased” and no conversations can really occur.
To that point, regardless of the source, a good critical thinker still needs to evaluate the content of the material. In this particular case, it wasn’t even glen beck who wrote the article, it was a “classmate” of obama’s. does the notion of that glen beck is “biased” somehow diminish what the author had to say? To dismiss it out of hand because of where it came from is to actually be engaged in the very activity---bias---you are accusing him of.
And ironically enough, the harping about the source points this out too---none of the mainstream media reported on this but that doesn’t bother you. In each case, you can guess as to why….
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