Bias
Written by Jim Blue | | news@toledofreepress.comThere’s nothing like an election year to stir old memories. I was surfing the Web when I ran into a video of someone I recognized — a television news anchor named Barbara West.
Barbara West
Back in the mid 1980’s, West and I worked at competing stations in Amarillo, Texas. It was her first anchor job. Prior to that, her biggest claim to fame was representing Vermont in the Miss America Pageant.
From that small market on the arid Texas plains, West landed a spot anchoring in Orlando. She worked for years at the ABC affiliate, attracting little notice outside Central Florida. But now she’s really in the national spotlight.
During a satellite interview last week with Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden, West asked if Barack Obama is a Marxist.
West has now replaced Joe the Plumber as the lefty blogosphere’s “Public Enemy No. 1” and become the hero of right-wing radio talk show hosts.
She has also sparked a debate over media bias.
Way “back in the day” when I first got into journalism, most reporters considered objectivity to be a primary goal. We were trained to seek out opposing views and to restrain our personal biases. When journalists offered opinions, they were supposed to be clearly labeled as “commentary” or “analysis.”
But a funny thing happened on the way to the World Wide Web. Objectivity became passé.
From MSNBC on the left to FOX News Channel on the right, few pretend to achieve balance — they just wink cynically at how antique that concept appears to be. And too many editors and producers, the gatekeepers, are now cheerleaders for aggressive partisanship in news coverage.
Scientific American Magazine reported some scholarly research on the subject of bias in its November issue. The magazine cited UCLA political scientist Tim Groeling, who studied the way four networks reported polling numbers. Groeling discovered that ABC, CBS and NBC had a pro-Democratic bias. FOX had a pro-Republican bias.
Surprise, surprise!
Another study quoted by Scientific American discovered that, based on their citations of liberal and conservative think tanks, most of the major media, including the Wall Street Journal, were left of the average Democratic legislator. Yes, I said Democratic legislator.
Despite West’s interview, the mainstream media have focused far too little on Barack Obama’s background and far too much on Joe the Plumber’s. We know that Joe doesn’t have a union card. But do we really know the candidates’ deep political and economic philosophies?
As a news consumer, you can demand more. You can support those journalists who deliver fair and balanced reporting and don’t just use it as a slogan. You can avoid the outlets that pander to your own biases and give your loyalty to those that challenge your preconceptions with facts, not blather.
Too many reporters and editors figure the freewheeling marketplace of ideas on the Web and on cable TV will somehow balance things out. Maybe it will. Or maybe professional journalists should reclaim their standards and offer news consumers a better reason to watch and read their work.
To read West’s interview with Joe Biden, click here.
E-mail columnist Jim Blue at jimblue@jimblue.com.
In his recent article, Jim Blue calls for removing bias from reporting. It’s unfortunate that Jim Blue does not realize that accuracy is a critical component of a reporter’s work.
I also worked at an Amarillo station that competed with Jim’s. In fact, I worked at Barbara’s station. In fact, I am rather familiar with Barbara West’s work, as I am her husband.
In his article supposedly condemning Barbara’s bias in her interview of Senator Biden, Jim Blue displayed his own bias. More importantly, he displayed his inability to get the facts right.
For example, in an attempt to belittle her, he wrote of our time together in Amarillo, “It was her first anchor job. Prior to that, her biggest claim to fame was representing Vermont in the Miss America Pageant.”
Sorry, Jim, wrong. Very wrong.
Barbara began on-camera work in television news in the 1970s. When Peter Jennings anchored ABC World news every night from London while the 42 American hostages were held captive in Tehran, Barbara was there with him, getting the story right, and getting it right now! When Jim’s network reported that the hostages had been freed and left Iranian airspace, Barbara was there working with a Farsi-speaking woman, talking on the phone with the air traffic controller in Tehran and reporting that they were still captive in Iran.
She also helped cover the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, another huge story in its time.
Covering 444 days of “America Held Hostage” working for Peter Jennings is one thing more than anything else; it’s incredible experience in good journalism.
Mr. Blue goes on to write “From that small market on the arid Texas plains, West landed a spot anchoring in Orlando. She worked for years at the ABC affiliate, attracting little notice outside Central Florida. But now she’s really in the national spotlight.”
Again, a little fact-checking, something taught in Journalism 101, would have helped his story quite a bit.
For example, Barbara has collected a number of Emmy awards for her work. She also received the most prestigious award in broadcast journalism, the Edward R. Morrow Award. He health reports were seen throughout the country. She was the only Florida reporter to get a number of critical interviews while covering the Monica Lewinski matter. Her ratings are consistently higher than the other two stations during her newscasts, combined!
She was the ONLY Western reporter to get into the then-working control room in Chernobyl on the tenth anniversary of the disaster there.
The Edward R. Morrow Award, Monicagate, Chernobyl; I’d call that being noticed outside Central Florida!
Mr. Blue calls for more hard news reporting and less bias. Perhaps if he did some basic fact-checking and removed his own bias from his writing, he could begin to meet the standards he calls for in others.
This comment was posted on November 1st, 2008 at 1:06 amTYPO
Make “42 American hostages” read “52 American hostages.”
Thank you.
This comment was posted on November 1st, 2008 at 1:12 amJim Blue responds –
This comment was posted on November 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 amI am aware of Barbara West’s work with Peter Jennings. It is noted on her biography on her station’s website.
Nonetheless, behind the scenes work, even for a network, did not garner Barbara much fame. So my reporting is accurate.
Mr. West is not specific about what “on-camera” work Ms. West may have performed. But Amarillo was her first anchor job.
Her Emmy awards are admirable. But Mr. West knows that they are regional awards, not national. I’ve won a couple myself.
My research has not found Barbara’s winning an Edward R. Murrow award. It is not mentioned in her biography, which I find strange. The Murrow awards are given on both regional and national levels.
I will check with the Radio Television News Directors’ Association which awards the Murrow and correct my column if necessary.
In any event, my reporting is accurate, because, despite her local success, Barbara West was not a household name outside Central Florida.
Mr. West has every right to defend his wife. I will let readers decide whether he is biased in this matter — or I am.
Jim, Jim, Jim
More research is needed. Anchoring? How about Burlington, Vermont and Oklahoma City? She anchored in both.
The Morrow was national. Check it out.
No, Barbara West was not a household name outside Central Florida, but perhaps it is now.
Why?
For one simple reason. She “dared” to ask the questions other reporters should have been asking for months.
Some thought the questions were far fetched or biased. Why would she ask about Senator Obama’s plans and their closeness to Marxism? It was very simple. Barbara’s own research uncovered that Obama wrote in his book that while in college, he liked to be close to what Obama himself called Marxist professors. Generally, one learns Marxist ideas from Marxist professors.
Obama’s own written words; not hers.
Barbara’s friend Sam Dolandson once said that “When interview subjects don’t like the questions, they often call them biased.” Sam said, “In reality, they can’t object to the questions. What they object to are their own answers.”
Rather than trying to object to Barbara’s work, perhaps you might look into why no other reporter dug deep enough to ask those questions…. the questions most readers/listeners/viewers wanted answered.
This comment was posted on November 3rd, 2008 at 1:13 amI checked with the RTNDA. Murrow awards are given to stations, not individuals. West’s station, WFTV, won a Murrow for best local newscast in 2001.
This comment was posted on November 5th, 2008 at 2:05 pm