Wednesday's Biased Item - March 14, 2007
Media Buries Story on Troop Increase in Iraq by Republic of Georgia
Excerpt
QUESTION: Read the excerpt below from Mark Finkelstein posted on March 12, 2007 at Newsbusters.org. Then scroll down and read "Types of Media Bias."1. Have you seen or read news reports about the Republic of Georgia's troop increase in Iraq?
2. If not, what type of bias is shown by ABC/NBC/CBS and the major newspapers?
...When the UK recently announced that it was reducing the number of its troops in Iraq by 1,600, the news was the subject of massive media coverage in the United States. In addition to innumerable MSM news reports on the development, pundits filled the airwaves with hours of dire conjecture as to whether the British move signalled the collapse of the coalition, etc.
But when news comes that another member of the coalition is proposing to send more additional troops to Iraq than the UK is withdrawing, [media] reaction has been the proverbial cricket-chirp.
As per th[e] official press release of March 8th from the Embassy of the Republic of Georgia in Washington, DC, Georgian President Mikheil Saakhashvili has proposed tripling the contingent of Georgian troops in Iraq. Given the current Georgian troop level of 850, the proposal represents an increase of 1,700 -- more than the 1,600 Brits are withdrawing.
[U.S. Multi-National Forces] commander General David Petraeus also mentioned the Georgian proposal in his press conference last Thursday.
I Googled the news, and found very little in the US press. An item by Bill Roggio at the Weekly Standard. One Reuters story.
What about ABC/CBS/NBC or the major liberal newspapers? If there has been coverage, I haven't seen it. Certainly any coverage by them hasn't begun to rival the way those same news organizations trumpeted the news of the British withdrawal. ...
Go to NewsBusters.org for the original posting.
ANSWER: Bias by omission and story selection.
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)
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August 20, 2008 - Poll Shows Majority of Americans Believe Reporters Try to Help Their Candidates Win
June 11, 2008 - The Great Media Depression
June 4, 2008 - The AP Maligns Our Soldiers On Memorial Day Weekend
May 28, 2008
