Wednesday's Biased Item - September 19, 2007
ABC Trumpets Greenspan’s Bush Went to War for Oil, Ignores His Real View
Excerpt
INSTRUCTIONS:Read the excerpt below from Brent Baker's Sept. 18th Newsbusters.org post. Scroll down and read "Types of Media Bias." Then answer the questions.
QUESTIONS:
1. Why do you think ABC's World News did not offer a correction on Monday night to its inaccurate Sunday night report on Alan Greenspan?
2. Why is it a problem that ABC failed to issue a correction the next day, after Mr. Greenspan himself clarified his real belief about the Iraq War?
(Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers.)
EXCERPT
(from the NewsBusters.org post):
...ABC anchor Dan
Harris,... at the top of Sunday's World News ... highlighted how “one
of the most respected figures in Washington says the Bush administration went to
war in Iraq because of oil.†Harris soon referred to it as “an eyebrow
raising allegation on Iraq†in a new book from Alan Greenspan, the former
Chairman of the Federal Reserve. But after a Monday Washington Post story, in which Greenspan declared that oil
was “not the administration's motive,†and an appearance by Mr.
Greenspan on the Today show made abundantly clear the inaccuracy of
the implication that Greenspan was somehow endorsing a...theory about how George
W. Bush went to war to financially benefit Dick Cheney's oil industry friends.
ABC's World News on Monday failed to offer any correction for its incendiary,
and erroneous, reporting. In fact, the September 17 World News didn't mention
Greenspan at all.
Go to NewsBusters.org for the original posting.
ANSWERS:
1. Opinion
question. Answers vary.
2. Alan Greenspan is a well-known
and highly respected individual. Even if ABC News made an honest mistake
in their report, to not issue a correction to a majorly inaccurate
report is irresponsible journalism. What can the viewer assume but
that ABC News cares more about saying that President Bush went to war for oil,
than the fact that Mr. Greenspan did not mean to imply such a thing in his
book. Many people who only watch ABC's World News will be left with
the false impression that Mr. Greenspan thinks the Bush Administration
went to Iraq for oil.
To accurately identify different types of bias, you should be aware of the issues of the day, and the liberal and conservative perspectives on each issue. (See our chart “Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs”)
Types of Media Bias:
Omission – leaving one side out of an article or a series of articles over a period of time... (read more)
Selection of Sources – including more sources that support one view over another... (read more)
Story Selection – a pattern of highlighting news stories that support one side of an issue over another... (read more)
Placement – the location in the paper or article where a story or event is printed; a pattern of placing news stories so as to downplay information supportive of one side... (read more)
Labeling – comes in two forms: 1. Tagging of person from one party or group with extreme labels while leaving the other side unlabeled or with more mild labels. 2. A reporter not only fails to identify a liberal or conservative as such, but also describes the person or group with positive labels, such as “an expert” or “independent consumer group”... (read more)
Spin – occurs when the story has only one interpretation of an event or policy, to the exclusion of the other. Spin involves tone- a reporter’s subjective comments about objective facts... (read more)
Previous Biased Items
- When Watchdogs Snore: How ABC, CBS & NBC Ignored Fannie & Freddie
October 1, 2008 - AP: US ‘A Nation That Enshrined Slavery in its Constitution’
September 24, 2008 - Media’s Treatment of Hillary, Barack and Sarah
September 17, 2008 - Media Credibility Plummets
September 10, 2008 - The NY Times: A Year-Long Analysis: Part 2
September 3, 2008
