An Associated Press story in the Sept. 14 Globe discussed recent poll results showing American concerns about media bias. The concern is legitimate and deserves public discussion.
The most glaring evidence of media bias is in the television media industry. No doubt that Fox News “slants” its programming toward Republican and right wing positions.
By the same token MSNBC does the same for the Democratic and left wing positions. It is without argument that those stations in both “news” coverage and other programming are biased. To a lesser degree, but still evident, CNN and network news and programming has a liberal slant as well. Talk radio personified by Rush Limbaugh is almost exclusively dominated by right wing rhetoric, in many cases extreme and even perhaps hateful.
In the print media The New York Times is decidedly liberal. Again, to a lesser degree, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times reflect such liberal tendencies as well. The San Diego and Chicago mainline papers are on the other hand more conservative and Republican in news coverage and editorial positions.
The Internet is open to almost everyone. You can easily find positions therein that reflect every possible position on the political spectrum from pure communism to almost total anarchy. Take your pick and you will find it there. Blogs on the online Globe also reflect broad diversity of opinions, though communists and anarchists do not reside therein, or so it seems to me.
Anyone with a satellite dish or online computer can find a station, newspaper or Internet discussion group to reinforce their views. If they choose to listen to or read a broad variety of views they have that choice as well. That is the benefit of the information age and technology and I support it 100 percent.
Everyone should take advantage of all sources of news and information to reach personal positions on any topic in my view. On a combination of issues or single ones, it is not easy to decide where the truth really rests. No single source of news, be it newspaper, TV, radio or the Internet has a corner on the truth.
It is up to us as individuals to do the hard work necessary to find it for ourselves. Any single news source will unintentionally be biased sometime.
We must find our own balance through reading and listening carefully and with as little bias as possible on our own part.
Anson Burlingame lives in Joplin. His blog “I’m Not Sure, Are You?” can be found at www.joplinglobe.com
Columns
September 26, 2009
Anson Burlingame, guest columnist: Bias issues deserve public discussion
Why doesn't the news the public trust the media?
- Columns
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Federal stimulus money allows Cherokee County to buy foreclosed houses
COLUMBUS, Kan. — A grant through the federal stimulus program will allow the Cherokee County Commission to buy three foreclosed houses from a county bank.
Nancy Lamb, deputy emergency management director for the county, provided information Monday about that grant and other grants on which she has been working. - Guest column, Allen Shirley: Copy a winning example Last October, I published a column in The Joplin Globe documenting three failed attempts involving the states of Maine, Massachusetts and Tennessee and their efforts to implement “Obamacare” in their states.
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Anson burlingame, guest columnist: Living within our means
“Mainly, we are going to have to live within our means and be very careful.”
That is the most resounding sound bite I have heard from a politician in a long time. If only that sentiment can grow and resonate, politically, to turn the tide of incessant and extraordinarily dangerous growth beyond our means in government. - Jim Stone, guest columnist: Paranoia shouldn’t impede freedom The afternoon of Dec. 30 brought news that eight American CIA agents and four Canadian soldiers at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Afghanistan had been killed by a suicide bomber.
- Dan Ray, guest columnist: Bills can still be terminated We still have an opportunity to terminate the health care bills that have been passed in the Senate and the House.
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Dave Woods: Global warming fires up debate
on Adams doesn’t believe in global warming.
I have to say, when it’s 3 degrees below zero outside in Joplin and we’re headed for our third week without a thaw, global warming theory is a tough concept to wrap my head around. -
Jack Kaminsky, guest columnist: Remembering a ‘classic’
Last week Editor Carol Stark asked me to write something about my dad and the Kaminsky Classic, the annual Joplin High School basketball tournament which ended on Saturday.
Even as I started writing, I began crying, and have had tears in my eyes all day. - Carol Stark: We all need someone’s hand to hold I was always a nervous little kid and while others my age went through life without a care, I held back, imagining that the worst was about to happen.
- Dave Woods: Harsh note sounds over parade trip By the time you read this column, the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., will only be a memory.
- Bob Steere, guest columnist: Still looking for some answers Don Ray’s frustration in obtaining answers from his leaders in Congress (Globe, Dec. 22) is certainly shared by this letter sender.
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Federal stimulus money allows Cherokee County to buy foreclosed houses
COLUMBUS, Kan. — A grant through the federal stimulus program will allow the Cherokee County Commission to buy three foreclosed houses from a county bank.
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