Sunday, February 04, 2007

Frank Richs' take on media bias is old news as far I'm concerned - it's just that now more big names are coming out and admitting it publicly even though the big shots still say they are bias free - Their take on the matter is that they are all professional journalists - what a laugh - the Associated Press bias free? CBS? The New York Times for gods sakes? Ha Ha Ha - give me a break.

(this from Newsmax)

Frank Rich: TV News Is ‘Fictionalized’

Today’s TV news programs have more in common with television miniseries than with factual reporting, says New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich.

“What used to be truth has been replaced by something that looks like reality, but is often fictionalized,” Rich — a former theater critic — told a gathering at The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 30.

It all began with the highly successful 1977 miniseries “Roots,” which romanticized history, and that set the example for later distortions of the facts by CNN when it covered the first Gulf War as 24/7 entertainment, according to Rich, who called that coverage a “mediathon.”

“It made the Gulf War the first war in American history with its own theme music, its own logo, and a cast of, if not thousands, hundreds,” Rich said in remarks reported by the Palm Beach Daily News.
Because of a news blackout, actual journalism was scarce, and instead “experts came on and said whatever they wanted based on idle speculation and government officials came on and said whatever they wanted us to hear,” Rich told the gathering.

Other mediathons have included the O.J. Simpson trial and the deaths of Princess Diana and John Kennedy Jr., according to Rich.

The evolution of news into entertainment — driven largely by the profit motive — and the distortion of facts to serve political ends “is not a Republican problem,” Rich added. “It’s a cultural problem. The Democrats are just as eager to take this entertainment-over-reality approach and exploit it.”

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