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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (66517)9/2/2004 4:32:20 PM
From: Lane3   of 793914
 
This isn't about "playing fair" in a kindergarten.

I'm not talking about fairness. I'm a systems person, Nadine. I'm talking about the practicality of drawing bright lines. If you were writing the policy for a news organization on when to report it straight and when to show preference, what criteria would you set? There are only so many places were bright lines can be drawn. If you can't set clear, objective criteria for the line, you can't expect compliance.

It's civilization vs. barbarity.

Proposed policy: We cheerlead for civilization and we disapprove of barbarity. Sorry, Nadine, that doesn't cut it. Sooner or later some news reader is going to have to choose between a smile and an eye roll.

Axe murders are easy. What affect does the news reader adopt when talking about a mother whose son has died? If he died of AIDS? If he died of AIDS he contracted during a rape he committed? If he died of AIDS he contracted at birth from his mother? What if the son was killed by gangsters? What if he was a gangster for a rival gang? What if he was killed by police? What if he was killed by police because he was attacking someone who turned out to be a terrorist in the act?

If you want to see bias under some circumstances but not under others, you have to be able to distinguish. "Civilization" means different things to different people. I'm imagine the folks at the Beeb think their bias represents civilization. There's the rub.

Neutrality of affect is my proposal. If you have criteria for some other bright line, I'll take a look.
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