http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4343006.stm
In today’s America where people depend on the same program for news/entertainment (on certain channels, it is easy to mix up the two), this article strikes a painful chord. Yes, a lot of what is telecast on the telly today is undoubtedly doctored, dressed up, postured, what have you. Reporting seems to have a strong element of bias to it and as you watch more, you realise that the bias creeps into nearly every bit of information telecast. Some specific aspects of news are given prominence and some are studiously ignored. Certain people are called on talk shows and lambasted as if to set an example for others who think alike. There is nothing like ‘fair and balanced’ any more. Au contraire, it is unfair and polarised. What totally gets me irritated is the air of sensationalism that pervades the news today. What is passed of as objectivity (if anyone even lays that claim) is mere opinion.
An excerpt ‘The eye on the short-run bottom line led to the closing of foreign bureaus, a decline of investigation, the rise of infotainment. The American public, getting most of its news from network television, came to have little sustained quality reporting to feed on. So by 2001, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, the consequences of the Taleban’s capture of Afghanistan, the insidious growth of global anti-Americanism, came as terrible shock to its insulated world. Murrow had warned it would happen: “If we go on as we are then history will take its revenge and retribution will not be limp in catching up with us.”
Long live PBS/GPB!
parag says:
I don’t watch much TV these days. But, when I did, PBS was always one of my most watched channels. News Hour with Jim Lehrer is the best news program on TV. I also like NOVA and Frontline along with some obscure programs like ‘The Red Green Show’. You should try out this Canadian show if you haven’t seen it yet. It is hillarious.
NPR does an admirable job on the radio side, too. I am a big fan of NPR.
Hope you support your local public stations with some greenbacks along with the praise. They really need the donations to keep running.
October 25, 2005 — 11:48 am
Lakshmi says:
Yes, donations to PBS is on my list of to-do items. I really like their programming. In-depth, detailed and on such varied topics that anyone gets hooked!
October 25, 2005 — 11:51 am
Lakshmi says:
🙂
You’re back!
October 25, 2005 — 12:54 pm
srusrid says:
In Crichton’s Disclosure, he talks about how opinions and rumors can go a long way in determining what is believed.Now there’s a term coined,’Manufacturing consent’.In a democracy, the only way to propogate ideas is by the media, and this media is definitely biased. THe fundamental of a democracy is the ability to make an informed choice, and that information is flawed as it is biased.
There’s no more truth ; it is all what one chooses to believe.Everything is an opinion ; a world view one chooses to accept. I find it hard to believe anything or anyone is unbiased.There’s a human hand involved, it is bound to be biased, because all are thinking beings, who form world views which they then choose to propogate.
One does never “know”.One believes.
Ultimately, one needs to make choices.Hence one cannot go with the IDK(I don’t know) philosophy, and forms self-truths, and deems them to be universals.
All of the above is an opinion.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/srusrid/14682.html
October 25, 2005 — 1:27 pm
Lakshmi says:
Very rightly put.
October 25, 2005 — 1:32 pm
Lakshmi says:
Reminds me of the definition of Maya, as Gurudev put it. ‘All that can be measured is Maya’. As I understand it, there is only one absolute truth and that is beyond measure, beyond Maya.
Nice, huh? You’re one of the few people I expect to understand and appreciate this, Sru…:-)
October 25, 2005 — 1:34 pm
srusrid says:
🙂
sometimes one has to revel in non-understanding ; or the understanding that it is all non-understanding.
October 25, 2005 — 1:56 pm
Lakshmi says:
and relax.
October 25, 2005 — 1:58 pm
srusrid says:
Ah..there’s the rub. We have been taught to be “in control”.Misinformation is lack of control.So, we unlearn.Let go.Tough:)
October 26, 2005 — 6:24 am