Media Bias

Most reporters will deny it even under threat of water boarding.  But they all know it to be true.  Try as they might – and most good reporters I know try mightily – it’s hard, real hard, to land in a place that can be fairly called objective.

Bias exists and there’s no denying it. It’s not that the story is wrong, badly written or even slanted in one direction or another, although stories often are.

Bias exists in other, more insidious places.  What stories are covered.  What stories aren’t.  How stories are played – is it the lead, is it buried?  How much prominence is a story given, how is it headlined?

Take these two headlines on the Omar Khadr trial at Gitmo.

KHADR SAID HE WAS A TERRORIST: PROSECUTOR

-National Post

OMAR KHADR INNOCENT, LAWYER TELLS TRIAL

-CBC.ca

One story.

Two very different headlines.

And headlines, and occasionally the first paragraph or two, are all many readers pay any attention to, or at least remember.

Yes, the CBC and the National Post have their biases as all media outlets do.

They’re on display every day.

And they do matter.  They do have an impact on how we view – and ultimately judge – the world around us.

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Posted in Featured, In the News, Media Analysis at August 13th, 2010

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