A popular (and well founded) complaint about journalists is that the vast majority of them lean to the left and cannot seemingly report anything objectively anymore. Their bias always seem to seep through.
One of thousands of examples of this rampant bias was recently discussed here.
As the Weekly Standard’s Mark Hemingway points out in great detail, these journalists can’t even suppress their bias when they put their “fact check hats” on. The entire genre of Fact Checking articles is entirely based on the premise of an unbiased perspective. Yet they’re failing dismally at this.
Here’s a snippet from Hemingway’s excellent piece:
The media establishment has largely rallied round the self-satisfied consensus that fact checking is a noble pursuit. Nonetheless there are signs of an impending crack-up. In their rush to hop on the fact-checking bandwagon, the media appear to have given little thought to what their new obsession says about how well or poorly they perform their jobs.
It’s impossible for the media to fact check without rendering judgment on their own failures. Seeing the words “fact check” in a headline plants the idea in the reader’s mind that it’s something out of the ordinary for journalists to check facts. Shouldn’t that be an everyday part of their jobs that goes without saying? And if they aren’t normally checking facts, what exactly is it that they’re doing?
Robert, if you believe that objectivity is an impossible myth, that it was always so, and that any pretense to the contrary is a dishonest and disguised attempt to appeal to something beyond your opinions that would show those opinions to be true, then you will not be concerned with the “objective facts”, since there are none! (Note the clever use of sneer quotes.) Now, if the rubes are dumb enough to still believe in “the facts”, we’ll use it against them … er, to help them, since they’re obviously incapable of helping themselves.
At least, that’s what we’ll tell ourselves and one another.
Meanwhile, we’re laughing all the way to the bank.
Most of what they are checking are opinions – so all they are presenting is a different opinion!! Big deal. If journalists want to write an opinion piece they should do that, but they should also headline it as an opinion piece (which they don’t)
Jonah Goldberg just pointed out an amusing gaffe by Glenn Kessler, the WaPo “fact checker,” who misused the word “apologist” in a headline and in the piece itself (“The claim that Obama is an apologist for the nation…”).
An apologist of course is one who is arguing on behalf of something, rather than apologizing for it.
What adds to the humor is that the “fact checker” or his minions quietly changed the headline without acknowledging the error, although commenters below have made quite a point out of it; in fact, one wrote, ” As any WaPo writer should know, it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.”
All opinion pieces should come with a dis-claimer at the top, along the lines of:
Readers should be aware…
The writers bias is his own, the following is the writers opinion and may NOT be based on facts or reality.
Speaking of the difference between fact and fiction, here’s the head of the DNC declaring that unemployment in the US did NOT go up during Obama’s time. Got that? Unemployment in the US has NOT increased under Obama.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/12/dnc-chair-unemployment-didnt-go-up-under-obama/#comments
Again, my suggestion to the GOP is to emphasize that Obama and his gang operate totally within the fictional realm while the GOP acknowledge, hard as it is to do so, the hard reality of facts.
Say it openly: ‘With all due respect, Mr. Obama, but your comments belong in the realm of fiction. The FACTS must not be ignored, and they are…”
Liberal bias is doubly difficult because many liberal journalists are unaware of their bias. They think liberal opinion is fact.
If you try to explain the problem they don’t understand.
Let’s be clear…..most “journalists” have zero credibility. They usually enter that “profession” because they couldn’t handle the tough courses….you know….math, physics, chemistry, etc.
I have a neighbor who used to be the “environmental reporter” for the city newspaper. I have rarely met anyone as dense as her. It was absolutely amazing…..”fact check”? She didn’t have a clue what that meant.
I have never met an op-ed writer who couldn’t scribble really big fibs…read it all with a skeptical eye!
It’s when the scribblers get so bad they don’t recognize their own lies that I get worried.
And yes, I have written and published many op-eds.
Journalists: “reporters” or “repeaters”?
Imperfect human beings?
“When it comes to fact checking, the media seem oblivious to the distinction between verifying facts and passing judgment on opinions they personally find disagreeable.”
Fact checks have become and maybe always were,nothing more than rebuttals. It’s time “journalists” started to put “Opinion” at the head of everything they write as almost nothing they report seems to hold up to the “fact checkers” of the opposite political view.
I remember a political columnist near Kelowna whose columns were recently dropped by the local Press,not because they weren’t factual,they just didn’t parrot the theme of the publisher.
And no “fact check” was ever done.
Liberal bias is doubly difficult because many liberal journalists are unaware of their bias. They think liberal opinion is fact.
If you try to explain the problem they don’t understand.
Posted by: jeff
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Yes, it always seems to me that Liberal/liberal political supporters are oblivious when ‘their side’ has done something hypocritical/offensive/wrong, whereas Conservatives/conservatives are aware, (although they may, or may not, let it slide), of their side’s failings.
There is a difference.
The information age has end all that!
@ 11:07am Nick wrote: “Robert, if you believe that objectivity is an impossible myth…”
Nick, never once have I said that objectivity amongst journalists is impossible. It’s not!
Let me be clear that editorialists/pundits can (& should) have any views they want. What bothers me to no end though is when “straight” reporters & writers spin the news by either slanting things or through deliberate omission. It’s disgusting and falls far beneath the high ideals of what the journalism profession could be.
The fact that many of these folks are so lacking self-awareness to even realize that they’re severely biased is proof-positive of how deep seated the problem is.
Robert, well said.
Just reading the articles these clueless Marxists writes is proof enough of their bias. Fact checking? A none issue with these people. Their worse than me at writing. At least I check to see if what I say has real backing, not flights of socialist fantasy.
While I doubt that anyone could prove reporter neutrality I can’t help but wonder if the reporter is just as influenced by his publisher as he is his own bigotries. If the publisher says write a left leaning piece then the reporter had better write a left leaning piece.
Robert @ 2:11:
My remarks @ 11:07 were not directed against you. (I could have been clearer). They were intended as an explanation of why the complaint against journalists that they are not objective will not make the slightest dint in them. They have been taught in journalism school, and throughout the postmodern U., that the very idea of objectivity is a pernicious lie. The denial of objectivity frees them to use whatever “facts” suits their interests.
ET, fact check “unemployment in the US did NOT go up during Obama’s time.”
DNC statements relate only to SEIU employment.
So I got an AP Politics feed on my smartphone recently.
About once a week there is a FACT CHECK feature on the latest GOP debates. Here the AP writers pick at points made by various candidates in the debates. I have yet to see any fact check of any Senate debates or administration announcements. I wonder if that will ever happen, or if they only look for mistakes or gaffes made by Republicans.