Wednesday, November 02, 2005

liberal bias

Although I'm currently a FNC watcher, I've rarely seen the rabidly pro-liberal bias in CNN that some cite, and usually discount minimal slants on their part as the price paid for having news researched and reported by real people (as I do for FNC). I continue to have a great deal of respect for CNN, both for being the parent of FNC and MSNBC, and for its flexibility in changing with changing times.

But twice in the past week, I have seriously questioned their neutrality in presenting news stories, and found their spin to be egregiously in error both times. On the Miers de-nomination, CNN's breaking news headline was worded to reflect that Harriet's name was being withdrawn by W, rather than by Ms Miers. Of course we all think we know the reality behind Harriet going back to her old job, but the officially correct version of the story was that Harriet Miers withdrew her own name from consideration. Secondly, I switched from Cavuto to Situation yesterday when CNN seemed to be giving more attention to Harry Reid's hissy fit and Bill Frist's emoting scene than was FNC. During Situation, Jack Cafferty did a spot of reading viewer email regarding the news of Tom Delay getting his wish for a new judge granted. His mail largely reflected the uninformed sentiment of viewers who believed that Delay simply did not want a Dem judge, and was able to have a switch because the defendant and judge would be of differing political parties. Certainly, the pic was larger than this, and to be fair, Wolf-of-the-many-screens tried to nudge Jack to acknowledge this to no avail. Thus the impression that Cafferty tried to convey stood.

There's a terrific blog that takes a neutral stance while it tries to compare the way CNN and FNC present the same stories. It's called CNN vs. FOX. Check it out and encourage that blogger to write more often!
Posted by Kate :: 7:12 AM :: 0 Comments:   

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