From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Sun Apr 27 2003 - 12:19:50 MDT
Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
> As has been mentioned here, Media Research Center has documented the
> heavily anti-war bias of ABC, which included broadcasting much
> disinformation and anti-war propaganda, [...]
I have to agree with Mike on this one. I looked at FAIR's report:
<<FAIR examined the 393 on-camera sources who appeared in nightly news
stories about Iraq on ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC
Nightly News and PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The study began one
week before and ended one week after Secretary of State Colin Powell's
February 5 presentation at the U.N., a time that saw particularly
intense debate about the idea of a war against Iraq on the national and
international level.
[...]
Overall, 68 sources, or 17 percent of the total on-camera sources,
represented skeptical or critical positions on the U.S.'s war policy--
ranging from Baghdad officials to people who had concerns about the
timing of the Bush administration's war plans. The percentage of
skeptical sources ranged from 21 percent at PBS (22 of 106) to 14
percent at NBC (18 of 125). ABC (16 of 92) and CBS (12 of 70) each had
17 percent skeptics.>>
http://www.fair.org/reports/iraq-sources.html
Imagine that! ABC had the effrontery to allow 17 percent -- 17
percent!!! -- of it's on-air sources to be skeptics about the war. My
god, that's almost 1 in 5!!! Any reasonable person would acknowledge
that antiwar views should be restricted to, uh, what Mike? 5 percent? 10
percent?
Too bad the report doesn't mention Fox. In any case, during wartime, it
appears the skeptics should be reduced to 0 percent:
<<"Once the war against Saddam Hussein begins, we expect every American
to support our military, and if you can't do that, just shut up.
Americans, and indeed our foreign allies who actively work against our
military once the war is underway, will be considered enemies of the
state by me.
Just fair warning to you, Barbra Streisand and others who see the world
as you do. I don't want to demonize anyone, but anyone who hurts this
country in a time like this, well. Let's just say you will be spotlighted.
Talking points invites all points of view and believes vigorous debate
strengthens the country, but once decisions have been made and lives are
on the line, patriotism must be factored in."
- Bill O'Reilly
"We have the responsibility to support our President in time of
conflict. This President, in my opinion, is going to war against Saddam
Hussein, and every American should be giving him their support when that
time comes."
- Jerry Falwell>>
http://www.mediawhoresonline.com/
BTW, I also visited Media Research Center's report on media coverage at
http://www.mediaresearch.org/specialreports/2003/warnews1.asp , but
apparently missed the sections where they did comparable analysis to
FAIR (all I saw was a bunch of opinions and anecdotal evidence).
-Mike
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