Wednesday's Biased Item - May 30, 2007
Did You See This News Story?
Excerpt
Read the post below from OpinionJournal.com posted by James Taranto on May 25, 2007. Then scroll down and read "Types of Media Bias."QUESTIONS:
1. Do you think that the media hypes stories of American "torture" while downplaying stories of Al Qaeda torture? Explain your answer.
2. Do you think this is an example of any of the following: bias by OMISSION, STORY SELECTION or PLACEMENT? Explain your answer.
"In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods," TheSmokingGun.com reports. The site reproduces a dozen pages of the illustrations, which depict such methods as "blowtorch to the skin" and "eye removal," and adds:
Along with the images, which you'll find on the following pages, soldiers seized various torture implements, like meat cleavers, whips, and wire cutters....The images, which were just declassified by the Department of Defense, also include a picture of a ramshackle Baghdad safe house described as an "al-Qaeda torture chamber." It was there, during an April 24 raid, that soldiers found a man suspended from the ceiling by a chain. According to the military, he had been abducted from his job and was being beaten daily by his captors. In a raid earlier this week, Coalition Forces freed five Iraqis who were found in a padlocked room in Karmah. The group, which included a boy, were reportedly beaten with chains, cables, and hoses....
Blogger Don Surber of the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail examines big-media coverage of the documents [emphasis added]:
Where did USA Today play the torture book story?
Not on Page One.
Where did the New York Times play it?
Not on Page One.
Where did the Washington Post play it?
Not on Page One. And yet such false stories as the "flushed Koran" got widespread play in the newspapers and on television.
...
Whether intentional or not, the message is clear: The United States must be above even false reports of torture, while the enemy is allowed to promote eye removal, blowtorching skin and horrors I won't go into. ..........
Go to OpinionJournal.com for the original posting.
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
