Chapter 5: The Public and the Media: Love and Hate
Documented Evidence of Public Hostility to the News Media
Gallup Inc., “Media Use and Evaluation,” Copyright © 2007 Gallup Inc. All rights reserved. The survey of 1,010 adults was conducted Sept.14–16, 2007. http://www.gallup.com/poll/1663/Media- Use-Evaluation.aspx
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, “Views of press values and performance: 1985–2007,” Aug. 9, 2007. http://people-press.org/report/348/internet-news-audience-highly- critical-of-news-organizations
Pew Research Center for People & the Press, “Media: more voices, less credibility,” Jan. 25, 2005, http://people-press.org/commentary/?analysisid=105
Gallup Inc., “Honesty/ethics in professions,” Copyright © 2007, Gallup Inc. All rights reserved. The survey of 1,006 adults was conducted Nov. 30–Dec. 2, 2007. http://www.gallup.com/poll/1654/Honesty-Ethics-Professions.aspx
Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2004. http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2004/
Possible Explanations for the Hostility
Roy Peter Clark, “The public bias against the press,” poynteronline, Jan. 30, 2008. The public bias against the press is a more serious problem for American democracy than the bias (real or perceived) of the press itself. http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=136625
Black, Steele and Barney, Doing Ethics in Journalism, 17–18.
William F. Woo, Letters From the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2007), 24.
Nicholas Lemann, “Fear and favor: Why is everyone mad at the mainstream media?”, The New Yorker, Feb. 14–21, 2005. (Academic databases)
Learning From the Complaints
Too many mistakes:
Urban & Associates, “Examining our credibility: Perspectives of the public and the press,” a report for the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The telephone survey of 3,000 people was conducted in April and May 1998. http://www.asne.org/kiosk/reports/99reports/1999examiningourcredibility/index.htm
Robert H. Giles, Introduction to Robert J. Haiman, Best Practices for Newspaper Journalists (Arlington, Virginia: The Freedom Forum’s Free Press/Fair Press Project, 2000), 2. You can download the book here: http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp? documentID=12828
Bias: Everette E. Dennis, “Liberal reporters, yes; liberal slant, no!”, The American Editor, January-February 1997. “How professionalism and the profit motive inoculate the news from blatant political bias, critics notwithstanding.” http://www.asne.org/kiosk/editor/97.jan-feb/dennis1.htm
John Wicklein, “That ‘liberal media’ to blame: It’s a rallying cry of conservatives, but the real story not quite that simple,” Quill, October 1997. “Surely it is not shameful for young liberals to want to go into news reporting. What is shameful is that young conservatives who accuse the news media of bias have felt no responsibility to get into the profession and fight for the principle of fair coverage they so loudly espouse.” (Academic databases)
News Bias Explored (website from University of Michigan on word choice) http://www.umich.edu/~newsbias/wordchoice.html
Clark Hoyt, “The blur between analysis and opinion,” The New York Times, April 13, 2008. The Times’ public editor says: “News reporters should provide context. They should challenge false assertions by authority. They should write articles giving their expert analysis. But it may be one step too far to have the same reporter write a column with voice and opinion – explicit or implicit – and news articles that are supposed to be completely impartial.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/opinion/13pubed.html
John Carroll, “Memo on abortion and liberal bias,” memorandum to editors at the Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2003. [may be found under Point-of-view Essays]
Jane T. Harrigan and Karen Brown Dunlap, The Editorial Eye 2nd Ed. (Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2004), 118.
John C. Merrill, Journalism Ethics: Philosophical Foundations for News Media (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1997), 167.
Keith Woods, “Transmitting values: A guide to fairer journalism,” included in Michele McLellan, The Newspaper Credibility Handbook (American Society of Newspaper Editors, 2001), 107.
Bernard Goldberg, Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News (Washington, DC: Regnery: 2001).
Eric Alterman, What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News (New York: Basic Books, 2003).
Insensitivity:
Bonnie Bucqueroux and Sue Carter, “Interviewing victims: Tips and techniques,” Michigan State University’s Victims and the Media Program, The Quill, December 1999, http://www.victims.jrn.msu.edu/public/articles/tentips.html.
Haiman, Best Practices for Newspaper Journalists, 32. Bob Steele, “Journalists and tragedy: A passion for excellence and a compassion for people,” poynteronline, May 1, 1999. http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp? id=5576
Unnamed sources:
Gene Foreman, “Testing the readers’ confidence,” Nieman Reports, Winter 1999–Spring 2000. Offers guidelines for the use of unnamed sources. On page 23 at: http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/assets/pdf/Nieman%20Reports/backissues/99winter- 00spring.pdf
Applying Perspective to the Complaints
Lee Wilkins and Renita Coleman, “Ethical journalism is not an oxymoron: In ethical decision-making journalists compare ‘very favorable to those who work in other professions,’” Nieman Reports, Summer 2005. An article based on Wilkins and Coleman’s research. http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=101118 Also: Coleman and Wilkins, The Moral Media: How Journalists Reason About Ethics (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005), 39.
George Kennedy, “Loving and doubting journalism at the same time: A University of Missouri survey of public attitudes toward journalism reveals a complex pattern of responsibilities,” Nieman Reports, Summer 2005. http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=101117
Leon Nelson Flynt, The Conscience of the Newspaper: A Case Book in the Principles and Problems of Journalism, (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1925) 7–11.
The Grand Forks Angel
This episode is presented as a case study [may be found under Case Studies]