ABC spells Bias?
I saw this Political Meme over at the Pirate King. (Chad and company have really been posting some interesting stuff over there as of late.)
It has to do with the Alphabet Network and reporting the political leaning of the troops.
From Right Wing Dog.
This from Major General (ret) Buckman.
My niece, Katelyn, stationed at Baluud , Iraq was assigned, with others of her detachment, to be escort/guard/watcher for Martha Raddatz of ABC News as she covered John McCain’s recent trip to Iraq.
Katelyn and her Captain stood directly behind Raddatz as she queried GI’s walking past. They kept count of the GI’s and you should remember these numbers. She asked 60 GI’s who they planned to vote for in November. 54 said John McCain, 4 for Obama, and 2 for Hillary.
Katelyn called home and told her Mom and Dad to watch ABC news the next night because she was standing directly behind Raddatz and maybe they’d see her on TV. Mom and Dad of course, called and emailed all the kinfolk to watch the newscast and maybe see Katelyn.
Well, of course, we all watched and what we saw wasn’t a glimpse of Katelyn, but got a hell’uva view of skewed news. After a dissertation on McCain’s trip and speech, ABC showed 5 GI’s being asked by Raddatz how they were going to vote in November; 3 for Obama and 2 for Clinton .. No mention of the 54 for McCain.
Ah, the irony of American Patriots protecting the press from harm while the reporter prepares a completely misleading story about which candidate the soldiers prefer. The reporter obviously thought her escort was comprised of brainless morons who wouldn’t see what was going on in front of them. Wouldn’t be the first time a reporter in the MSM turned out to be the brainless moron.
Support the troops. Pass this along.
Snopes “covered” this issue. Of course Martha Raddatz either lies or tells the truth about what really happened. Seems she’s trying to say she saw lots of Obama supporters out of the dozen she talked to. Yeah, whatever, I’ve seen so much liberal bias out of just about every news article I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the truth.
Could it be that Raddatz was attempting to balance a story that spent the bulk of its time focusing on McCain? Reporters are usually expected to include reactions from opposing points of view, not necessarily to conduct rigorous polls for every story.
I didn’t see the piece; I’m just wondering.
Comment by Grumpy — July 10, 2008 @ 9:21:32 AM
Here is the report on ABCNews dot com:
Video Included
The text of the online article is even slanted.
Comment by Jeremy — July 10, 2008 @ 9:33:58 AM
[rolling eyes]
Everyone has some form of bias so I won’t completely dismiss it, but there is an overwhelming factor in the news business that makes bias only an issue for people who disagree with the story… Money.
Money=viewers. So news is now about telling a story. An interesting story that people will want to watch. So what’s more interesting… troops supporting McCain or troops supporting Obama or Clinton? The later of course, because it’s unexpected and shows a military turning on it’s current administration.
Just like killer storms and people who murder their spouses (or terrorists on a plane) the media thrives on sensationalism and stories. Not truth. Do you want to keep blaming the media? You’re wasting your time. You either need to regulate the news (which has it’s own issues) or get viewers to care about (and be able to actually recognize) reality… not stories. Oh and good luck with that.
Comment by Cisco — July 10, 2008 @ 1:56:35 PM
Yeah, that story is a mess.
Comment by Grumpy — July 11, 2008 @ 9:11:29 AM
True, Cisco, but the MSM seems to have such a definitive slant to the left that I’d be hard pressed to say they are doing just for money. No doubt that if having a right slant paid more there would be stories that at least were more centralist if not right slanted but it is hard to dismiss the huge left shift of the MSM.
Comment by Chan — July 11, 2008 @ 7:48:30 PM
It’s not hard Chan… I just did! :)
Comment by Cisco — July 12, 2008 @ 1:10:00 PM
OOHHH… The smack down cameth.
Comment by Chan — July 12, 2008 @ 9:11:52 PM