Tags: WSJ Murdoch Takeover Ellison Film South of Border NY Times Bias News Should Be Accurate
Last night I watched a http://booktv.org presentation by Sarah Ellison formerly of the Wall Street writing about the Murdoch takeover of the Wall Street Journal.
Murdoch wants to put the New York Times out of business by competing in New York. But it seems just like he did in the Times of London, he did not in spirit stick to the agreement to leave the news reporting along. By selectively firing and hiring people he was able to transform it more to his conservative bent. But he does put profits first so he had to proceed carefully.
He is doing the same at the Wall Street Journal. He has expanded the coverage at the WSJ to topics other than watching corporations mainly. So far it is not as biased as the New York Times in its reporting which Ellison did not seem to see. She simply says the WSJ is conservative and the New York Times is liberal.
I don't read newspapers for opinions, but for great accurate news reporting. So far the WSJ is winning. I also rely on McClatchy News http://www.mcclatchydc.com/economy/ which does not have newspapers in New York, but everyone interested in getting accurate news should consider going to their website.
Normally financial newspapers such as the Financial Times tend to be more accurate than the NY Times so I read it every day about financial matters. http://www.ft.com/home/us Non-subscribers have limited access by registering. The http://www.huffingtonpost.com has some great columns, but it takes trial and error to find what you want no matter your political bent.
Note that the NY Times reporting on Venezuela by Romero is really distorted and misleading about what is actually happening. In spite of Venezuelan Media by the Wealthy trashing President Hugo Chavez everyday, he is still very popular. Our plan is to put the wealthy friends back in power to help us secure the oil supplies. That is why we now have military bases in adjacent Colombia.
Jim Kawakami, June 29, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com
Venezuela Film South of the Border Trashed by NYT Showing Bias Huffington Post Robert Naiman June 28, 2010 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/nyt-attacks-border-with-f_b_627984.html
No reasonable person would have bet serious money that news editors at the New York Times would be huge fans of Oliver Stone's new documentary about South America, "South of the Border." A key point of the film is that mainstream U.S. press coverage of South America in recent years has generally followed State Department priorities more than objective news standards. The New York Times comes in for specific criticism in the film, which notes that the paper editorially backed the short-lived US-backed coup against the democratically-elected government of Venezuela in 2002. (Key evidence on the U.S. role in the coup can be found here. After the coup collapsed, the Times half-apologized for its pro-coup editorial, as also noted in the film.)
But still, accepting that no-one likes to be criticized, there are supposed to be rules for newspapers like the Times. In an editorial, they can express any opinion they want. But news articles are supposed to be accurate, and if a reporter has a direct interest or bias in a situation, the paper should assign another reporter or at least disclose the interest or bias. ...
From much past experience, I know that many will respond cynically to yet another attempt to raise the alarm about bias at the Times. "So the New York Times is a stenographer for the State Department. Tell me something new!" But this glosses over the fact that the New York Times' biased reporting is an ongoing source of major social harm, because the Times continues, whether we like it or not, to be a leader in US media from whom others take cues. What appears in the New York Times appears to many to be holy writ. We swim in a sea of false information that the Times helps propagate, and frequently many - including many who count themselves cynical - aren't aware of the false things that they believe that can be ultimately traced to a "report" in the Times. ...
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