What Media Bias?

Question

What Media Bias?

Rashid Hussein Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for Saddam Hussein’s military, is on trial for crimes against humanity during Operation Anfal, in which more than 180,000 Kurds were murdered.

So how does the Associated Press headline their article?

Anfal officer wants U.S. to face justice.

Answer 1

The news media has been on an anti US jag for about two decades and will bold faced say there is no bias. Even journalists have admitted that there is considerable bias but we don't need to be told that, you can find in on telelvision every day. What do we really know about the US in Iraq? Not very much. We have heard bad things because bad things made good news. Last year a Guard unit returning from Iraq was met by a reception of relatives and friends and a small army of news people. Just about every major news organization was there when they came home. Why? Because they feed on Guard units hoping to find disgruntled soldiers who did not sign up in the Guard with the idea that they would really have to go somewhere. But the Guard units perform well in Iraq. In this town there was a parade in which the whole town turned out and cheered the buses carrying the soldiers and there was a ton of national news people there. Did they carry that story? Nope, didn't even film it, just stood around waiting to pounce on the soldiers. The unit's Armory staff had erected a display of the humanitarian missions performed by the unit in Iraq (schools, hospitals etc.its an engineer/construction unit) with pictures and members there to explain what they had done. Did the meda carry it? Nope. Did not even look at it. When the buses unloaded they pounced on the soldiers, at times interupting family moments to try to find soldiers who would speak against the war, the country, the President, collie dogs, tennis shoes, anything, just anything. The found none. The soldiers were proud of their mission and success. There had been a couple of unit members killed by an IED during the tour of duty and the media had hoped to find negative reactions. The media found nothing, they packed up and left. There was never a mention of this event in the news and yet the networks and cable news spent a ton of money looking for the negative, slanted story. Didn't get it, so they left. Thats balanced reporting don't you think?

Answer 2

I would define media bias as : (point of view of viewer) - (point of view media) = bias. So any given story can be biased conservative or liberal (or whatever labels you prefer) as judged by the paradigms of the viewer.

In the case of the story in question, from my point of view it would be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The crime was horrific. But I will guess that it is mostly Americans that will have an issue with the Associated press headline.

Answer 3

You can't trust the mainstream press in the U.S. anymore.

Watch: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6604775898578139565