[lit-ideas] Re: Study: Media coverage has favored Obama campaign
- From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 08:25:15 +0700
Eric Yost wrote:
"For example, in assuming a 'faltering' McCain campaign, people will
ignore that Palin is considered the second most popular of the
political quartet in the race."
This is a non sequitur. The standards of a faltering McCain campaign
(eg. polling poorly in crucial states, traditional conservative
stalwarts turning on the campaign) are independent of the popularity
of Palin. Reading a wide variety of media sources, it is regularly
noted that Palin campaign stops are larger and more energetic than
McCain stops. I can't remember the last article I read on a Biden
campaign event. Even McCain admits that his campaign is not doing as
well as he would like. To claim that the belief in a faltering McCain
campaign can only arise from unbalanced sources is odd.
Eric continues, quoting:
"One example cited in the article is the likelihood of reporting
popularity shifts. CBS, for example, was 33 percent more likely to
report a five-point *drop* in approval for Bush than a five-point
*rise* in approval for Bush. What does that mean? Either "drops" are
more newsworthy in general, or they coincide with CBS's
"predilections."
If these are my only two options, I think I would go with the
'newsworthy' option, if 'newsworthy' means 'will sell more papers'.
However, I would like to return to my earlier point which was that it
is impossible to articulate how media outlets should be balanced
except with reference to examples of being unbalanced. Put
differently, talk of balance in news coverage is meaningful only when
considering examples that might qualify for being unbalanced, and
therefore should be avoided.
What I would be interested in are the standards Eric would insist on
for balanced reporting.
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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