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Politics : About that Cuban boy, Elian -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (7096)	6/7/2000 5:24:00 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 9127

If I firmly believe the mainstream press is balanced and objective and in reality they are extremely biased toward one political point of view. Could my belief of "balance and objectivity" interfere and prevent me from seeing a bias if it was occurring? I understand your point and agree with it as far as it goes. Would you agree with the converse? If I firmly believed that the mainstream press had a leftist bias and in reality they were extremely objective, could my belief of bias prevent me from seeing the objectivity? I expect an answer to that. I trust you to give me one, so I'll move on to the "as far as it goes." Further, could this interference be construed as a bias in itself? This interference (a belief in the bias or non-bias of the press) is not a bias, it is a belief, if it's based on intuition or astrology or divine revelation, or a conclusion, if it's based on evidence. Unsupported beliefs, I dismiss out of hand. For conclusions, they may be more of less valid depending on their basis. What is the evidence? What assumptions are being made? Is there bias in the assumptions? I do not know what evidence you have to support your belief/conclusion. You have not provided any that I saw. If you have some other, less biased, basis, please share it. Since have no evidence from you, I work off my observations. It appears as though your belief is based upon one or both of two things: one, that the mainstream press does not present things according to your rightist point of view; and, two, that you consistently post, refer to, and use arguments from news sources that are conspicuously and utterly uncritical of anything having to do with the right wing and aggressively hypercritical of everything remotely related to the Clinton administration, not to mention marginally literate at times. If that's your basis, then of course the mainstream press looks relatively liberal. I think that there is better evidence that the mainstream press is more or less objective. One has been mentioned by several posters on this thread, that is, that the mainstream press is considered biased by the extremes on both sides. When you get criticized from both sides, it usually means that you have found a reasonable balance. The other is that the mainstream press editorially both complements and criticizes, at times, both parties. It might sway a bit more to one side or the other, but it shows the ability to find both good and bad on both sides, to compliment and criticize both the Cowboys and the Redskins when they score or fumble. They may get the calls wrong sometimes, but they show the ability to look beyond what color jersey is being worn and analyze the merits of the issue. That is not proof that the mainstream press is relatively unbiased, but makes that conclusion more likely than the alternative. Karen

To: greenspirit who wrote (7096)	6/7/2000 6:47:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 9127

Does anyone seriously believe if this had happened to George W Bush the mainstream press would have ignored the story? Since we don't know what would have happened, it is a little difficult to discuss the question intelligently. I think the press has been extremely gentle with both candidates, and it amazes me that they are consistently treated as people who deserve to be treated with respect and seriousness. If I had my way, their coverage would be in the "entertainment" section, under the headline "Circus of the Day".