"Selection and emphasis" -- those are the two processes by which
bias enters the news. Phil, your account of rowdy conduct by some
Obama
supporters in Leesburg, reminds me of a conversation I had
many years ago with a veteran news editor. The question of what
goes into the top of a story and what goes into the 19th
paragraph, what goes at the top of Page One and what goes on page
B6 -- these are the choices made by editors and reporters that
shape public perception.
Whenever I go out on the road to do campaign coverage, I always
end up with more notes than I could possibly fit into a
1,000-word story. Choices are made. In the universe of facts, no
single article can contain every fact that can be known. So
reporters and editors must exercise news judgment in selecting
what to repoprt. It is in those selections that bias becomes a
factor.
When reporters provide coverage of the McCain campaign where
negative stories
outnumber positive stories 4-to-1, it's pretty obvious that
their news judgment is not balanced. I will note, however, that
the First Amendment does not require balance. Newspaper editors
and TV news producers can be as biased as they wish; the
audience, however, should understand that they're not getting the
full truth.
