The Current Events, News, and Politics Thread
11-29-2012, 02:09 PM
#3422
Boost Pope
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BBC and NPR are both government entities, and really, really liberal ones at that. They may not scream "I HATE CONSERVATIVES", but when BBC has a half hour segment about the polar ice cap disappearing in 50 years, it's simply a more subversive version of the same thing.
1: It seems that you are accusing NPR and BBC World of having political bias, which as I've noted previously is a separate criticism from accusing them of offering commentary and opinion as a substitute for journalism. The latter is the biggest problem that I have with most commercial broadcast entities in general- they spend more time stirring the pot in order to generate controversy (and ratings) than they do actually covering "real news".
It's like comparing the Weekly World News to the New York Times or the Washington Post. Regardless of whatever biases may exist, The Post and The Times are sources of actual news, whereas the Weekly World News, despite its name, is not.
2: In general, we tend to react more strongly to facts which we disagree with than those with which we agree. For instance, if someone says "Grace Park is attractive" then I'm likely to just nod and go about my business. By comparison, if someone says "The PowerCard Pro is the most advanced engine management system available," then there's going to be some shouting involved.
That said, assume a hypothetical news agency which is genuinely 100% unbiased, and does a perfect job of reporting all sides of controversial issues. Said agency carries a report which investigates global warming, which includes interviews with a certain number of scientists who firmly believe that global warming is real and will cause near-term environmental catastrophe, as well as an equal number of interviews with scientists who believe that what we perceive to be global warming falls within the expected range of short-term environmental variance (when viewed at a geological scale) and that there is no cause for concern.
A person who is passionately convinced that global warming is real and poses an urgent threat to humanity might respond to this report by saying "Why are they listening to these idiots? What a load of conservative BS!"
A second person, who strongly believes that global warming is nothing but a bunch of pseudo-science concocted to enable the government to increase its level of control over our lives might respond "Why are they listening to these idiots? What a load of liberal BS!"
The only real difference here is which set of scientists they perceive to be idiots.
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11-29-2012, 02:11 PM
#3423
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For instance, if someone says "Grace Park is attractive" then I'm likely to just nod and go about my business.
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11-29-2012, 02:30 PM
#3424
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I note that you didn't mention Al Jazeera, which is curious as I had assumed that my mention of them would be controversial.
If we suppose for the sake of this discussion that NPR and BBC World both exhibit some degree of political bias, would you say that Al Jazeera exhibits more or less bias than they do?
I'm going to take a shot in the dark here and guess "more," based solely on stereotypical perception. But this does not alter the fact that they are doing a batter job of reporting news than most US-based "news" agencies.
In addition to my work with commercial broadcast stations, I have also worked with NPR, both at the national and the affiliate level. On the whole, I'd certainly agree that the individual journalists who work in these agencies could be fairly characterized as skewing further towards "liberal" than "conservative" in terms of their own personal views, there's something else at play: pretty every single one of them is an idealist from the point of view of journalistic integrity.
That's something you don't universally find elsewhere. This is not to say that all journalists at commercial news stations are corrupt, merely that they do not embrace the ideal of pure journalism with the same intensity that you see at NPR. And there's a very good reason for this: people are drawn to NPR because they are idealists above all else. They pay isn't all that great, it's not nearly as glamorous, etc. But it's a place where you can practice actual journalism with much less constraint than with a commercial entity.
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12-01-2012, 06:30 PM
#3429
Tax increase = recession = better get a stimulus package together...
What's the "brilliant" plan to keep us from going into a recession once the tax increases are implemented on small business and those rich guys....? Another stimulus package. Anyone hear about cutting the government size to what it's been historically, like 18-19% of GDP instead of the current 25% of GDP? Nope.
Why Obama is pushing for stimulus in 'fiscal cliff' deal - Yahoo! News
Why Obama is pushing for stimulus in 'fiscal cliff' deal - Yahoo! News
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12-01-2012, 08:29 PM
#3430
Boost Pope
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Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Last edited by Braineack; 10-08-2019 at 09:48 AM.
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12-01-2012, 11:24 PM
#3433
I'll add one further item here.
I note that you didn't mention Al Jazeera, which is curious as I had assumed that my mention of them would be controversial.
If we suppose for the sake of this discussion that NPR and BBC World both exhibit some degree of political bias, would you say that Al Jazeera exhibits more or less bias than they do?
I'm going to take a shot in the dark here and guess "more," based solely on stereotypical perception. But this does not alter the fact that they are doing a batter job of reporting news than most US-based "news" agencies.
In addition to my work with commercial broadcast stations, I have also worked with NPR, both at the national and the affiliate level. On the whole, I'd certainly agree that the individual journalists who work in these agencies could be fairly characterized as skewing further towards "liberal" than "conservative" in terms of their own personal views, there's something else at play: pretty every single one of them is an idealist from the point of view of journalistic integrity.
That's something you don't universally find elsewhere. This is not to say that all journalists at commercial news stations are corrupt, merely that they do not embrace the ideal of pure journalism with the same intensity that you see at NPR. And there's a very good reason for this: people are drawn to NPR because they are idealists above all else. They pay isn't all that great, it's not nearly as glamorous, etc. But it's a place where you can practice actual journalism with much less constraint than with a commercial entity.
I note that you didn't mention Al Jazeera, which is curious as I had assumed that my mention of them would be controversial.
If we suppose for the sake of this discussion that NPR and BBC World both exhibit some degree of political bias, would you say that Al Jazeera exhibits more or less bias than they do?
I'm going to take a shot in the dark here and guess "more," based solely on stereotypical perception. But this does not alter the fact that they are doing a batter job of reporting news than most US-based "news" agencies.
In addition to my work with commercial broadcast stations, I have also worked with NPR, both at the national and the affiliate level. On the whole, I'd certainly agree that the individual journalists who work in these agencies could be fairly characterized as skewing further towards "liberal" than "conservative" in terms of their own personal views, there's something else at play: pretty every single one of them is an idealist from the point of view of journalistic integrity.
That's something you don't universally find elsewhere. This is not to say that all journalists at commercial news stations are corrupt, merely that they do not embrace the ideal of pure journalism with the same intensity that you see at NPR. And there's a very good reason for this: people are drawn to NPR because they are idealists above all else. They pay isn't all that great, it's not nearly as glamorous, etc. But it's a place where you can practice actual journalism with much less constraint than with a commercial entity.
Now being a "forced" contributor to NPR is about as enticing as being forced into a broadcast union or SAG, and watching my union dues get spent on people with whom I disagree.
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12-01-2012, 11:33 PM
#3434
Barron's letter to the editor
A Warm Thank You
To the Editor:
This 50-something, white, conservative Republican wishes to thank America’s youth for sacrificing their financial futures and standard of living so that boomers, such as my wife and I, can look forward to a long and comfy retirement, which we could easily have afforded on our own. Now we have the youth as our guarantors and providers of a little something extra.
As reported by the national exit poll conducted by Edison Research, Americans aged 18 to 29 voted 60% to 36% for Barack Obama. Prior to Obama’s re-election, I believed that it was morally wrong for my generation to pass a crushing national debt on to the next one.
The debt will top $20 trillion before Obama moves out of the White House, and it will include spiraling retirement-related costs that the administration has shown zero interest in bringing under control, largely driven by baby boomers piling into the Social Security and Medicare systems.
With the president’s electoral crushing of Mitt Romney, my overriding sense of morality and guilt have vanished. Thank you, kids!
Edwin D. Schindler
Woodbury, N.Y.
To the Editor:
This 50-something, white, conservative Republican wishes to thank America’s youth for sacrificing their financial futures and standard of living so that boomers, such as my wife and I, can look forward to a long and comfy retirement, which we could easily have afforded on our own. Now we have the youth as our guarantors and providers of a little something extra.
As reported by the national exit poll conducted by Edison Research, Americans aged 18 to 29 voted 60% to 36% for Barack Obama. Prior to Obama’s re-election, I believed that it was morally wrong for my generation to pass a crushing national debt on to the next one.
The debt will top $20 trillion before Obama moves out of the White House, and it will include spiraling retirement-related costs that the administration has shown zero interest in bringing under control, largely driven by baby boomers piling into the Social Security and Medicare systems.
With the president’s electoral crushing of Mitt Romney, my overriding sense of morality and guilt have vanished. Thank you, kids!
Edwin D. Schindler
Woodbury, N.Y.
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12-03-2012, 03:53 PM
#3437
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He decided to try NPR News and see if he could pick apart its latent liberal bias.
Now, he listens to it on his daily commute almost every day. Neither he nor I can stand most of the commentary shows like Talk of the Nation, On Point or the Dianne Rheem show.
I would bet $20 that you could not listen to the NPR News shows like MarketPlace and All Things Considered and objectively say they were "extremely biased."
A Warm Thank You
To the Editor:
This 50-something, white, conservative Republican wishes to thank America’s youth for sacrificing their financial futures and standard of living so that boomers, such as my wife and I, can look forward to a long and comfy retirement, which we could easily have afforded on our own. Now we have the youth as our guarantors and providers of a little something extra.
To the Editor:
This 50-something, white, conservative Republican wishes to thank America’s youth for sacrificing their financial futures and standard of living so that boomers, such as my wife and I, can look forward to a long and comfy retirement, which we could easily have afforded on our own. Now we have the youth as our guarantors and providers of a little something extra.
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12-04-2012, 05:34 PM
#3440
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Social Security is going bankrupt! Again!
I figured this would be relevant to the Fiscal Cliff discussions that would inevitably deal with the "future insolvency" or "bankruptcy" of the Social Security and Medicare programs.
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