In a survey done by Polling Point about media bias, major networks were divided among partly lines on whether or not they cover the news fairly/accurately/what have you.
Eighty-five percent of Democrats said FOX News, the oh-so-fair-and-balanced station, does the worst job of covering news and nearly 70 percent name PBS or CNN as the networks that provide the best coverage. On the other side, 9 in 10 Republicans say FOX offers the best coverage of all the networks and 6 in 10 Republicans say CBS does the worst job. Wow.
Conservatives also find Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh to be the most entertaining news anchors and think O'Reilly and Brit Hume do the best job in coverage. Liberals find Jon Stewart and Al Franken the most entertaining and think Stewart does the best anchoring job, with Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw close behind.
For more results, click here.
When we were tallying up the results on Election Night, the source the Optimist staff trusted most was CNN. We waited for them to call a state before we called it. FOX had practically called the election at 6 p.m. OK, that is an exaggeration. They did, however, call Ohio before anyone else did and named Bush the victor - dare we say? - prematurely. I just think it's interesting how the country is even divided on what news stations they watch. The fact that so many conservatives trust FOX news is frankly disconcerting but not unexpected.
This could be a future column. Hmm...
On a similar note, I appreciated this piece in USA Today by Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine. Here's an excerpt:
"Polls taken since the election have consistently shown that Americans care about moral values and don't restrict them to one or two issues. For instance, a Zogby International poll found that, when asked to choose the most urgent moral problem in American culture, 64% of respondents selected either greed and materialism or poverty and economic justice, while 28% chose abortion or gay marriage. Voters don't want to ignore these broader issues.
"Neither do our religious traditions. Thousands of verses in the Bible make poverty a moral and religious issue. The environment protecting God's creation is a religious matter and moral concern. Important issues of war and peace are deeply theological and just as much a life issue as is abortion. And human rights are rooted in the religious concept of the image of God in every person.
"Right now, neither party gets the values question right..."
To read the rest, click here.
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It's not surprising to me that people watch the news sources that reflect what they believe. Most people like to surround themselves with comfort, even with news sources that reinforce current worldviews.
I say that to say this, which I've been thinking about lately...the Greeks and the American "founding fathers" were probably right to put little trust in the populace at large. Yes, Sarah, a lot of people are stupid.
I encourage anyone who cares about Truth at all to
1) get your news from multiple sources, including right and left leaning groups. The US is one of the few countries who expect journalism to be non-biased. Accept that news reporting is slanted and try to balance it as best you can.
2) Use more than just US sources. They are largely ethnocentric. Look at BBC News, for example. Read stories about things besides the US and Iraq. The world is bigger than us.
Cheers,
Joseph
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