"Readers sometimes accuse us of bias. The trouble is that more than 95 percent of the time the stories people object to aren’t biased — the facts reported just don’t square with the way readers want the world to be. Often, when we ask people to indicate the specific parts that were inaccurate so we can correct them, they can’t point out any factual errors."
--Rolf Koecher
This sounds like Rolf is throwing down the gauntlet. Have at him!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Clipper Not Biased?
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2 comments:
When I saw the headline I had to laugh. Just take a look at the articles on vouchers, as an example. I was bored and noticed that the articles seemed slanted to opponents of vouchers, so I counted the pro and con paragraphs (from three articles on the subject). Here's the paragraph tally:
Oppose: 26
Favor: 14
Neutral/transition: 6
In terms of sources quoted:
6 Opposed
3 Favored
The above does NOT include the recent "Voucher foes ‘saddened, but not surprised’" article which is also heavy on the opposition viewpoint. Easily a 2:1 'advantage' for opponents of vouchers.
This thing is really laughable. Also, I wouldn't get upset, this is what I've come to expect from the Clipper and I hope no one actually takes them too seriously. Really not worth letting it ruin you day.
There is no doubt the clipper is biased. In the race for Davis County Sheriff the clipper repeatedly did stories on the sheriff. If you dont think this is a big deal think again. Sheriff Cox only beat his opponent Todd Richardson by 500 votes. That front page coverage through the heated days of the campaign could easily have influenced 250 people.
Media should cover the news and not go out of their way to create the news. The clipper is one newspaper that does influence the vote in the south part of Davis County.
When this type of yellow journalism influences the political landscape its time for the public to step up and be heard. Let it be know we are watching and will vote with our pocketbooks.
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