Is There Media Bias In Reporting Murder?

realtraveller · #1 02-28-2002, 01:14 PM

Here's a link to an interesting editorial by Larry Elder, a radio talk show host on KABC in L. A. I know, I know, it's on World Net Daily, but sneer and read it anyway.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/articl...TICLE_ID=26636

Why are certain murders reported heavily and sensationally and others go unnoticed?

Elder thinks it has to do with fulfilling the biases of the media.

It's an interesting read. What do you think?

vonboob · #2 02-28-2002, 01:36 PM

He makes excellent point; while reporting of facts may be impartial, the amount of coverage is "politically correct" or more to the point: what makes it into being "a story" or "no-story"...

Are we being conditioned?

**drmomentum**[$] · #3 02-28-2002, 01:47 PM

When are we going to finally admit that as long as humans control the media it will be rife with bias? I am once again going to loudly advocate that we put the media into the hands of our robot masters, where it belongs!

Seriously, though, the media has many forms of bias. One form is that it trumpets loudly any story it thinks will get people's attention. "Man bites dog" for example.

The liberal bias bugaboo is just Elder taking a few specific incidents he sees and generalizing to fit his presuppositions.

-JP

mtbat · #4 02-28-2002, 03:00 PM

there has always been bias in news. who runs the station or paper can have a lot to do with what gets covered-but I've said this before-why is anyone surprised anymore?

when Jonbonet died, a little girl in I think, Chicago was brutaly murdered-same age, simaler deaths-she was poor and black JB was rich and white-america's poster child.

The Mathew Sheppard thing-I'm sick of hearing about him-I am very sorry he died-no one desereved to die like he did-but HE WAS IN A BAR PICKING UP STRANGERS-he was not an "innocent" like the 7th grader who was brutaly murdered(mentioned in the article)

What makes Sheppard so d*mned special? that he was gay? that it was Wyoming? I would LOVE to see equal reporting done for stories but that's not going to happen the way the newspapers/tv stations operate right now.

Fridai

eplovejoy · #5 02-28-2002, 03:04 PM

If the media were as monolithic as Mr. Elder likes to believe and if they were as liberal, he wouldn't be able to publish a book about the ten things you can't say in America. That he is able to publish such a book and use his radio show to promote it suggests that the media are more diverse than is convenient for Mr. Elder to acknowledge.

realtraveller · #6 02-28-2002, 04:25 PM

From what I've read most of the so-called "conservative" books published are published by one house: Regnery Publishing. Don't know if it's true or not but "Bias" by Bernard Goldberg was passed on by other publishing houses.

I do think that white on black crime or straight on gay crime gets more sensational headlines that the reverse. Perhaps the media are uncomfortable and afraid of being accused of racism if they made a splash about crime by black against white. Or perhaps they are in fact being somewhat racist and find that black on white crime is not news.

But there are other examples. In L. A. a few days ago, a man killed his five children and his wife by turning on the gas. They all died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Purely local edition stuff. Why isn't it getting the same play as Andrea Yates killing her five children?
---Is it that gassing someone is not as "colorful" or "sensational" as drowning in the bathtub?
---Is it that the crime was committed by the father, perhaps a more common occurrence and therefore not as newsworth?
---Is it that there are no swirling issues of post-partum depression involved?
---Is it that the family was Hispanic and not suburban and therefore not as newsworthy to the papers?

kurt_messick · #7 02-28-2002, 08:03 PM

I don't think it is as much liberal bias as it is marketing bias. What is sensational? What sells when it is the teaser for the 6 o'clock news? What sells when it is the cover story?

The bias is popularity. The bias is the profit margin. Not very liberal (not really conservative, either...)

#8 02-28-2002, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by realtraveller
From what I've read most of the so-called "conservative" books published are published by one house: Regnery Publishing. Don't know if it's true or not but "Bias" by Bernard Goldberg was passed on by other publishing houses.

Have you read the book?

It's good. It's funny. It's also so right.

Amazing, but even with the bring-the-body-closer BS local news, there was still room for liberal bias. Even in conservative Texas. I'd listen to producer meetings now and then and just stifle laughter at how some of the boobs and boobettes tried to spin everything.