Miguel: Yeah, I saw that. In fact my post was in direct response to that page.
You might also check out this and this and this. What many people don’t realize is that the draft scare largely was brought about by an email circulating the ‘net and a couple of bills which some democrats are trying to pass. It’s all been blown out of proportion and the usual spin has been applied.
Tags: Personal
October 24th, 2004 at 7:48 am
Dude, you can’t seriously list Fox a source of anything accurate, especially when it comes to US politics.
October 24th, 2004 at 9:28 am
What’s the protocol for posting on old threads? I’m not enough of a weblogger to know. So here:
http://pubcrawler.org/archives/000480.html
October 24th, 2004 at 12:28 pm
Similar articles can be found on CNN, MSNBC, and ABC if you google. Just because something is on Fox News doesn’t make it false. It’s comments like yours, Mike, that demonstrate exactly what is wrong with the political climate. People aren’t thinking or investigating properly. They simply start with a premise or world view and filter everything through that. Everything is being labled left or right, good vs. evil, black and white. This is *exactly* what Jon Stewart was criticizing Crossfire for and people all over the ‘net rightly admired him for it. But then people go back to doing the same things themselves.
Also I linked to a self-proclaimed “progressive” and liberal site, workingforchange.com
October 24th, 2004 at 8:44 pm
It always amuses me when people immediately criticize Fox News. Here’s an interesting article to read about media bias.
Remember, Fox *NEWS* is different from Fox News Network’s Analysts and their shows. The actual *NEWS* they report is often centrist. Their *analysts* are undeniably Right-leaning.
October 24th, 2004 at 10:48 pm
Jamin: the thing that is wrong with the political climate is is two fold: It is impossible to tell how a particular source is biased without doing doing potentially extensive, time consuming research and the masses accept whatever is spoon-fed to them by the major news sources (who claim to be impartial) without thinking.
I spent 10-15 minutes checking out the two other sites you linked to (neither of which I have previously heard of) and came back with nothing conclusive, does that mean I should trust those sources of information or not? If I did that for every “he said/she said” claim and counter claim, I’d be spending my life researching this stuff, which I dearly don’t want to do.
So this filtering is essential for people. Through various ways (recomendations from people, first hand evidence, historical evidence, whatever) you form a short list of sources you think you can trust and sources you think you can’t. You then apply that filter to news that you see, hear or read. To imply this sort of process is bad seems pretty ludicrous to me, do you exhaustively research every single bit of news you hear? If not, then you yourself are doing exactly what you are complaining about.
The reason why you think this filtering process is flawed is because, as you said, people aren’t doing enough or any investigation. They come home from work, sit down on the couch, turn on the TV and $MAJOR_NETWORK_FOO is there proclaiming they are impartial every five minutes in between attacking one or the other party. People don’t get out enough, see enough competing points of view. They just accept what they see.
Also, note I was criticising your use of Fox as a source, not you claim about the draft issue. I still haven’t made my mind up about that.
Jim: If that was the case, then I’d be interested to hear about the news they don’t report.
October 24th, 2004 at 10:54 pm
Ugh, MT really b0rked my formatting…
October 24th, 2004 at 11:09 pm
Yes, and I’d be interested to hear all the news ANY major network doesn’t report. Has anyone seen the unbelievably extensive rebuilding effort going on in Iraq? Heard of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens helped by US soldiers and contractors? Heard of the medals of valour awarded? Most likely not, but amazing things are being done by our armed forces every day. Watching the major news networks wouldn’t tell you that, I had to do some searching and had to speak with one of my friends who just came back from the area. Instead, we have people reading the names of the dead, talking about the “quagmire” and the “imminent draft” or how we went in without support from the U.N. (which Clinton did more than once). I grow weary of people becoming rabid about Fox News when every other major news network has been guilty of enormous bias for much longer.
October 26th, 2004 at 2:14 pm
If anyone has seen my prior posts, they can probably guess that I do take a particular viewpoint so far as politics goes. That being said, I think that we should be aware that the media has bias that is much more influential than political bias: profit. Anything that sells is what gets reported on. Sex, violence, or please, please, please both. That is why we do not hear about the good things happening in Iraq. Who cares about the water treatment plant that just opened when a suicide bomber killed 35 children at the ceremony to celebrate the plant’s opening. And it goes both ways. Remember when Clinton was president? Do you remember any of the legislation that he signed or pushed in 1997, or do remember the color of Monica Lewinsky’s famous dress? We can all bitch about FOX being the media arm of the conservative movement and how the “mainstream media” has a liberal bias. But, in reality, politics has much less influence on what goes into print than money.