fair and balanced my ass

I'm reading the Columbia Journalism Review this semester as part of my newspaper management class. At first glance, I thought this would be a refreshing look at journalism, and some of the articles were good, but I was very disappointed by an article on milblogs by Daniel Schulman.

The article was a good introduction to milblogs for those who had no idea what they were, which is a great service to the reader. But the approach taken by the author showed a liberal slant, whether intentional or not, which I best describe as blatant agenda setting and poor journalism due to the out right lack of objectivity and omitting one of the main points of milblogs.

Since combat began in Iraq in March 2003, “milblogs,” as they’re called, have been cropping up in increasing numbers. Some are sophomoric and laced with obscenities, while others offer frank and poignant accounts of what it’s like to fight this war. Their popularity has drawn the interest of book publishers, along with the scrutiny of military higher-ups concerned that milblogs could breach operational security. For the Pentagon there is also something else at play here: how to manage the flow of information from the field — especially when the military’s official version of events is contradicted by blogging soldiers.
[emphasis added, be sure to read the entire article]

Not once does Schulman mention the coverage milblogs provide to directly contradict the mainstream media. He does acknowledge the coverage they provide which the MSM woefully lacks:

The best of these blogs offer Americans back home a chance to connect with soldiers in ways that today’s media coverage does not.

But the omission of the fact that many milblogs aim to counter the deluge of negative news on the war that the MSM seems infatuated with.

I've almost stopped watching cable news because of the blatant slant against the Bush administration and its attempts to do the right thing to handle situations. And no, I am not including Fow News as a "news" channel; watching Fox News to counter the liberalism of the rest of the MSM is like setting your head on fire to get rid of lice.

The delivery of such biased messages under the guise of "objective" journalism is nothing more than delivery of intellectual poison. What ever happened to variety of viewpoints in the media?

-the Progressive Conservative

Read the full CJR article

Technorati tags: milblogs, Columbia Journalism Review, media bias