When traditional journalists dismiss lowly bloggers like me as partisan and biased, while holding themselves up as oracles of objective, impartial, fair and balanced reporting, I generally respond by pointing out that for us mere humans, objectivity is an impossible, if at times an admittedly lofty goal. Editorializing routinely creeps into the prose of even the most careful reporter… sometimes to the point that even their own editors sit up and notice.
Take for example the Seattle P-I’s Chris McGann, whose report on the Gregoire-Rossi debate in this morning’s paper appears to have sustained a few targetted snips from the initial report that appeared online Saturday night (via Google’s cache).
Saturday night McGann wrote:
The two sparred about crime, health care, and the environment in similarly harsh tones and for much of the evening the challenger kept the incumbent on her heals.
And this morning we read:
The two sparred about crime, health care, and the environment.
And on Saturday, McGann freely expressed his opinion that…
Gregoire’s manner came across as defensive, while Rossi seemed more able to stay on message.
While on Monday… well.. that bit of editorializing is entirely missing from the Monday edition.
Huh. I guess McGann thought that Rossi decisively won this debate, which is not how I saw or it, nor how it was portrayed anywhere else in the media. No doubt we can agree to disagree when it comes to matters of opinion—I just wish that more journalists would openly acknowledge that opinion informs everything they report.
Worse yet … McGann seems to me to be scoring the figure skating at an Olympics rather than a debate on the issues.
I suppose we might note that he did fail to discuss their costumes.
Sheesh Goldy…is news reporter editorializing a new concept to you??
You sound shocked, disgusted & down in the dumper about it.
When I read your post, I could hardly keep my homemade chicken noodle soup down!
The commie editors at the PI seem to freely allow editorializing from their LEFTIST Komrades….that is why their circulation has plummetted and they are going down the tubes.
Thanks for pointing out the reporter, Chris McGann’s true feelings and observations. And that a commie Editor sliced them out.
SJ–
Seems like he failed to discuss the Governor’s pancake make-up too….and that there lipstick y’all on the O-blah-blah LEFT like to refer to.
Pancake makeup????
I think you are referring to Palin’s makeup on her “interview” with Faux News. It looked like it was layered on like frosting on a wedding cake, and then air-brushed to add color back in.
But in all fairness, digital TV has required candidates to wear a lot better makeup than they did before, and it is especially critical for any woman older than age 25. It’s taking some getting used to, and a lot of the makeup artists used by TV stations are from the “old school”, not accostomed to the new media. So we are seeing a lot of variation out there, compared to what we used to see.
Of course, what they SHOULD have done is schedule debates on the issues. They could have had one debate (at least two hours long) on the budget, one debate (another two hours) on transportation, and so forth.
I don’t think Rossi’s talking points will stand up to two hours of debate on a single issue. His positions will look quite silly, as he tries to explain how he plans to build an eight-lane bridge across Lake Washington that will merge into a single lane entrance ramp onto I-5 in each direction; how he’s going to use Sound Transit money that he’s not authorized to use; how he’s going to criticize the gas tax and then use the money; how he’s going to build that eight-lane bridge without changing the I-5 to I-405 interchange; how he’s going to do it all based upon 2005 cost estimates.
Goldy said:
“When traditional journalists dismiss lowly bloggers like me as partisan and biased, while holding themselves up as oracles of objective, impartial, fair and balanced reporting,…”
I can assure you that most news reporting is extremely biased and that we seldom know the truth about anything of consequence. This bias comes mostly from the left, but the right is also not a fair player in reporting what happens.
All I want is the news: I could care less for the reporter’s world view. I do not want some talking head’s opinions of the days events. Save the analysis for the editorials because I can think for myself and don’t need their arrogant attitudes.
Goldy wants newspaper reporters to infuse more of their own personal opinions into every story they write? He wants them write more like bloggers? He wants every newspaper story to be blatantly biased and partisan, reflecting the writer’s own personal beliefs?
Does anyone else want that? I don’t.
Troll,
The newspapapers and other media are already “blatantly biased and partisan.” That should be fairly obvious.
I’m irritated that a piece called “analysis” doesn’t actually provide any factual analysis. It’s just stenography. I could have written that just by watching the debate. What I want for the newspapers to do is actually investigate and report on the factual claims (and not just in a gotcha manner).
But that, of course, would require doing more than sitting down in front of the television.
What it all boils down to is the free fucking
lunch is just about done , finally. We need a good depression for about 10 years and all the suck off the trough democrats and union retards can starve to death and allow the producers to prevail like they always do.
Goldy Is insecure as the rest of his followers are.
Look at some the their pictures on the home page.
Now you know why their pissed all the time.]
YIPPPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I don’t disagree with anything that you said, but it may be a lot less malicious than you think. I used to work as a copy editor at a daily paper, and the main reason articles get chopped up by editors is because of space restrictions. Unlike the on the Internet, everything you want to say can’t fit onto a broadsheet of newsprint.
They were probably a few lines over when they flowed the story onto the page and a few snips had to be made. Usually the most superfluous and descriptive content gets the ax, while the facts and figures stay.
That said, it is good to see precisely which content is nixed to see if bias is creeping in.
I applaud you for keeping an eye on these supposed gatekeepers of the news. I highly support the bloggers who challenge the status quo media industry (whether its liberal or conservative) and get out the real news.
Keep up the good fight.
McGann is the most notoriously opinionated reporter I have ever seen in print in a major newspaper. I don’t know how he gets away with it.