The media needs to be unbiased
Earlier this week, I saw a news story about comments made by White House Communication Director Anita Dunn at a forum about the Obama campaign press strategy.
Dunn said “a huge part of our press strategy was focused on making the media cover what Obama was actually saying as opposed to why the campaign was saying it. … Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control. … It was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it.”
Now, there’s nothing wrong with that coming from Dunn — I think most campaign strategists would agree that being able to shape news coverage is a goal of any campaign. I think it was foolish of Dunn to come out and publicly admit that the campaign’s goal was to be able to shape the news stories instead of the media doing that, even though most Americans probably already know that that is any campaign’s goal.
What I do have a problem with is the fact that the media just stood by and let it happen. Personally, I think the media has a responsibility to the American public to do more than simply rebroadcast campaign rhetoric.
The media should be analyzing what the candidates say; they should be trying to have dialogue with the candidates. But the media needs to do this without reducing what candidates say to a 10-second sound bite that can be played over and over again, often out of context.
There needs to be a happy medium between replaying what campaigns want voters to hear and overanalyzing and discussing news stories to the point that news shows become opinionated talk shows.
Unbiased media does not mean media devoid of any analysis or discussion. Unbiased media is looking at the story from all angles, dissecting what the politicians are saying and looking at the issues from all sides. When media outlets allow campaigns to control the news stories, they have essentially become an arm of the political campaign.
This applies to both sides of the aisle. Most of the mainstream media has become anything other than objective and unbiased, from CNN to MSNBC to FOX.
The best way to combat this is to get your news from multiple sources. Don’t just watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann or just Glenn Beck.
Hopefully, the news organizations will begin to see the error of their ways and will attempt to provide more unbiased coverage of the news.
But I fear the chances of this happening are pretty slim. Americans need to get more involved. Don’t just accept what you hear on the radio or TV as fact — do some research.
Instead of jumping to a conclusion based on a 10-second sound bite, find the context of what was said. You will not only be more informed, but you will also be able to help inform others and, if we are all more informed, our elected officials are more likely to be accountable for their actions.
