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David Neiwart at Orcinus spent the weekend ruminating on a subject near and dear to us at CJR Daily — fairness and accuracy — and reaches some damning conclusions about how the Terri Schiavo case has played out:
Most of the well-earned opprobrium has been directed at the politicians in this fiasco. But just as worthy for its behavior has been the nation’s supposedly “mainstream” media — because its handling of the Schiavo case has revealed, irrevocably, the utter bankruptcy of what it nowadays calls “balance.”
What is especially appalling about the media treatment of the Schiavo case is how ardently, and unmistakably, it has adopted the supposedly “pro life” side of the argument. This ranges from outrageous bomb-throwing like that from Fox’s John Gibson, to fingerpointing from MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, and Rush Limbaugh, to subtler bias like the omnipresent “Fight For Terri” label that is being used by half the networks to accompany their coverage logos.
Now, there is such a thing as real balance. Real balance is a genuine striving for truth: a willingness to both recognize and honestly explore the multiplicity of viewpoints as well as facts that are part of the naturally complex nature of truth. It is complicated and hard work. Of course, real, hard truth is elusive and rare; but the striving is what brings us closer to it.
However, a genuine balance does not countenance obvious falsehoods where it encounters them. It does not treat misinformation as a legitimate “counter” to reasonably established facts, as though a falsehood were just another opinion. It does not put lies on an even footing with facts.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what we have gotten, in increasing doses, as standard practice from the nation’s press for the past decade.
Using a giant ladle, Buzzflash dishes out big dollops of that “opprobrium” for the pols in the Schiavo case. Terri Schiavo “was just an innocent bystander to a political, Elmer Gantry circus of GOP political opportunists and religious hucksters,” Buzzflash writes.
[U]nknown to most of the public, the Schiavo parents were being assisted by an army of PR luminaries from the so-called pro-life fanatics, including the infamous Randall Terry. A group of friars from Minnesota became one of the main visual images of the Schiavo parents’ “religiosity.” But, strangely enough, one of the friars admitted that they “pulled the plug” on the founder of their small group when he became seriously ill.
Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice also parses the events of last week and finds his own meaning: “The Era of Big Government is Back.”
If you boil it down, that’s the Bush/DeLay message of the week — a message polls show was repudiated by the bulk of Americans, cutting across religious and political lines … but perhaps that is what some perceive as leadership: doing what you want, despite what the vast majority of citizens desire. Traditional checks and balances? Pahh! States rights? States rights schmates rights!
(Don’t miss the accompanying cartoon.)
And, speaking of illustrations, for those who over-indulged from their kids’ Easter baskets yesterday, we leave you with this.
–Susan Q. Stranahan
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