Stop kidding yourself. There is no 'fair and balanced'

There never has been nor will there ever be such a thing as fair and balanced news reporting.

As long as people instead of robots are the ones doing the reporting they will find a way to inject their personal beliefs into every story they write.

Journalists are taught to present both sides of every issue fairly and without bias, keeping their feelings about the subject out of the text. But trust me, we journalists are experts at appearing unbiased while slipping little hints in here and there that are intended to convince rather than inform.

We are also ready and willing to sacrifice the truth at the altar of ratings, promotions and furthering our political agenda.

While this has always been true, it has always been at least partially veiled by a pretense of ethics and standards … until now. As the political tension in America becomes so thick you can practically see sparks in the air, news stations and papers are getting bolder and bolder in their attempts to sway their audiences.

We’ve gone from merely flavoring our sentences with a few well-placed words like “claimed,” and “allegedly” to intentionally placing quotes out of context to serve our purpose of sensationalism.

In one of many examples of such tainted reporting, NBC’s Katie Couric and the Washington Post both quoted Donald Rumsfeld’s seemingly uncaring response to a Soldier’s queries – but chose the only part of the quote that made him sound calloused.

When Spc. Thomas Wilson asked, “Now why do we Soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles? And why don't we have those resources readily available to us,” Rumsfeld replied, “I talked to the General coming out here about the pace at which the vehicles are being armored. They have been brought from all over the world, wherever they're not needed, to a place where they are needed. I'm told that they are being--the Army is--I think it's something like 400 a month are being done. And it's essentially a matter of physics. It isn't a matter of money. It isn't a matter on the part of the Army of desire. It's a matter of production capability of doing it. As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time. . .”

But NBC and the Post simply quoted the last sentence. “As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”

Not surprisingly, neither station mentioned (or has mentioned since, that I’m aware of, but I could be wrong) that Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts, who is embedded with Wilson’s unit, coached him ahead of time on the questions he should ask Rumsfeld. He also made sure before the press conference that his Soldier and another from that unit would be picked to ask questions.

“(We) worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have,” Pitts wrote in an email.

Pitts said he had just experienced a great day for a journalist. I don’t know what kind of journalist he was talking about. The validity of the Soldier’s question in no way excuses Pitts’ blatant manipulation of the story to suit his own purposes.

While touting his work as the only truth-telling journalist in the modern world, retiring TV journalist Bill Moyers said he would go out telling the “biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee.”

"We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people,” he said. If that’s not fair and balanced I don’t know what is.

By “right-wing media” Moyers presumably meant “Fox News,” the only news station that occasionally appears to want America to beat the terrorists. He can’t have meant the New York Times, CNN, or any of the other national “news” agencies whose reporters practically broke into a visible sweat trying to get John Kerry into the White House.

This is a classic example of the democrats’ habit of distracting from their outrageous behavior by accusing republicans of the exact same behavior. To be fair (and balanced), Moyer said he is not a liberal. He simply wants to tell the truth.

There will never be truly unbiased news. The average American will forever be forced to hear the news as the media wants us to hear it. If you get out and do the research yourself, you will find endless evidence of this fact, in Iraq, the 9/11 Commission, the presidential campaign and everywhere else.

Don’t just blindly believe what the TV tells you. Seek truth.

p.s. For more on Bill Moyers, visit http://temlakos.blogspot.com, one of my favorite blogs.