American Media (or, Where's the Rage?)

[The Redneck]

Journalists consistently poll at 60% or higher for the Democrats, even when they're at less than 50% nationally. Less than 20% of journalists voted for Reagan in his landslide defeat of Mondale in '84.

But while you're looking up "James Byrd" and "Ken Tillery" or "Matthew Shepard" and "Jesse Dirkhising" on LEXIS-NEXIS, try looking up such terms as "hard right" and "hard left"; "extreme right" and "extreme left", and see for yourself how overwhelmingly liberal reporters--and their reporting--are.

[The Captain]

For the purposes of this discussion, I don't think Liberal has to equals Democrat or conservative has to equals Republican, which has become such a major problem in this country.

Take care all.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

The Democrats aren't liberal by any stretch of the imagination, I might add. Many Democrats claim to be liberal but are anything but. You've not seen what a true liberal is if you believe liberals and Democrats are the same thing.

But anyways, to address the matter at hand.

How a person votes is their own business. It has no place in a news room, and any good journalist knows how to keep their opinions to themselves. It's something I've been learning to do as I work on my own journalism articles. You can't expect someone to magically not have an opinion. If more "liberals" are attracted to journalism, that may have more to do with the profession than anything else. However, the fact remains that a good reporter knows how to seperate their true feelings from the article they're writing.

When you write an article, what is the most important thing that goes into it? I can assure you that opinion isn't even on the list. You want quotes, and you want facts that support the article, whether you agree with them or not. Your feelings don't matter, what matters is the story.

Also, many big name journalists have earned... let's call it a "Right to an opinion." They've established themselves, they're making money, they can say what they feel and report with their bias. Personally I think it is a double-edged sword, on one hand I enjoy reporting from my own opinion, my own point of view. On the other hand, you lose a good deal of credibility that way. I'm not talking about watching the talking heads on TV or listening to the talk shows on the radio, I'm talking about the newspaper. You write an article unbiased, your own beliefs have no business in the workplace.

[Alixsar]

As a potential and probable journalism major, I must say that I am appauled by the state of the media in America today. It really makes me weep to see Michael Jackson's trial and some American Idol scandal be reported on before anything new that's happened in Iraq or Afghanistan. Speaking of which, remember them? We still have troops in Afghanistan, and it's just as much of a mess as Iraq, but no one ever reports on it. I know they're just reporting on what people want to hear, but it's sad that people don't want the news anymore. The founding fathers created our government with the idea that the media would watch over our government and tell us, the public, about it. Instead, when we turn on the television, we have Bill O'Reilly screaming at someone in split screen about rap music. It really bothers me. Opinions have become facts, and people are willing to believe them. There is no real investigative reporting anymore. Original reporting hardly even exists. Most newspapers just take Associated Press or Ryder reports and copy/paste them and call it a done deal. And the sad thing is that this is only the beginning! I could go on for hours talking about what's wrong with the media today, but I don't think I will.

My point is this: OMG, so much H8.

[The Redneck]

To say that every Democrat is a liberal and that every Republican is a conservative is indeed asking to be made a fool of. But when someone votes Democrat 80% of the time, you're not dealing with a conservative and you ain't dealing with a 'moderate'.

It has no place in a news room, and any good journalist knows how to keep their opinions to themselves.

Wanna run them LEXIS-NEXIS numbers, then?

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

And the numbers don't support your perceiving blatant bias where there is, in fact, very little at all? I say again, just because a person believes in a certain thing doesn't mean they cannot conduct themselves professionally enough to not assert it in their work. Or is it that when people become journalists they lose the human ability for restraint? I hardly think so.

[nik0tine]

But when someone votes Democrat 80% of the time, you're not dealing with a conservative and you ain't dealing with a 'moderate'.

So what do moderates vote for? Im pretty sure that they don't always vote Republican.