Wednesday, September 23, 2009

John Stossel on objectivity


Here's ABC's John Stossel, one of the few rational voices on the idjit box, on the subject of media bias, the myth of objective reporting, and his upcoming move to Fox News.

As always, worth reading, and Stossel gives us a great assortment of links to illustrate his points.
Two of my favorite sections:

Most reporting on the "stimulus" package has the same flaw. Just to call it "stimulus" is to editorialize, since the idea that government spending can truly stimulate an economy is at best doubtful. Many good economists say it can't be done (http://tinyurl.com/djudcy). After all, the money is taken from somewhere else. But the economists rarely are quoted.
In addition, reporters seem to think they've done their job if they merely describe the intentions behind the proposed "reform." But the burden of proof should be on the sponsors of regulation and spending. They should have to make a convincing case that their new rules are superior to the free market. Who cares about intentions?
Yes, I know that Fox News is biased. Yes, I know that the Castro News Network is biased. MS-DNC is biased. National Socialist Radio is definitely biased. The networks we used to call The Big 3 are biased and nobody cares because they aren't picturesquely biased. You're biased. I'm biased.
John Stossel and I are more objective about our biases, though.

2 comments:

Cedric Katesby said...

John Stossel is a very interesting character.
I've seen a few of his reports on youtube that I thought were well-crafted and firmly grounded in reality.

(He's not perfect. He has a major league "blind spot" but...I'll leave it alone because I don't want to derail the thread.)

For those of you who don't know him, here's a couple of things that, in my opinion, promote good skeptical thinking.

(Remember people; skepticism is a process, not a position.)

The power of belief
and...
John Stossel Exposes Liar Kevin Trudeau

The Whited Sepulchre said...

Cedric,
Thanks for coming by. I'm kinda disappointed that Stossel is leaving one of the Big 3, but he was getting fewer and fewer projects there.
My Sprint/Nextel wireless card now takes about 30 seconds to upload the Google homepage, so I can't watch the videos. Will get to them as soon as that problem is solved. They're supposed to go to G4 this weekend. Whatever that means.