Wednesday's Biased Item - February 14, 2007
Palestinian Factions Try to Observe New Truce
Excerpt
QUESTION: Read the 2 blurbs below from OpinionJournal.com's "Best of the Web" posted by James Taranto. Then scroll down to "Types of Media Bias." Which type of bias best describes these examples? (Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answer.)1. 'Do or Do Not. There Is No Try' (posted 1/31/07)
"Palestinian Factions Try to Observe New Truce" reads a New York Times headline: "After five days of clashes in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian factions today mostly observed the latest cease-fire, although one Hamas member was shot dead."
Suppose the story had been that Israel and the Palestinians had called a truce, but Israel had shot one Palestinian dead. Can you imagine the Times headlining it "Israel Tries to Observe New Truce"? The paper treats the Palestinians like children; it gives them credit for trying.
2. A Funny Way of Worshipping (posted 2/9/07)
"Israeli police stormed the grounds of Islam's third-holiest shrine Friday, firing stun grenades and tear gas to disperse thousands of Muslim worshippers who hurled stones, bottles and trash in an eruption of outrage over Israeli renovation nearby."--Associated Press, Feb. 9
Go to OpinionJournal.com for the original "Best of the Web" postings.
ANSWER: The blurbs are examples of bias by spin. Bias by spin occurs when the story has only one interpretation of an event or policy, to the exclusion of the other; spin involves tone – it’s a reporter’s subjective comments about objective facts.
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
