Whatever happened to journalists simply reporting the news?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
drivemytrabant

drivemytrabant

War Child
Joined
Aug 31, 2002
Messages
535
Location
The Ohio State University
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041113/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush&cid=536&ncid=536

I will use this story as an example. For those of you who didn't read it--its a story from Yahoo via AP. The headline reads:
"Bush Paints Rosy Picture of Iraq Situation"
This is NOT an op-ed, repeat, NOT an op-ed, this is a "NEWS" article. However, instead of simply reporting what the President said in his weekly radio address--and running the head line "Bush sees progress made in Iraq" or "Bush assures Americans: Progress being made in Iraq"--the author of this story decides to interject some of her own personal opinions on the President's artistic abilities I guess. Do your job and report the news. If you wanna spout your opinion start a blog or be good enough(or controversial enough) to get paid for it.
 
Bad News is news
Good news becomes bad news to be news
Fake bad news is news

Welcome to the mainstream media, we decide and you listen!
 
Last edited:
There has always been a degree of bias when reporting the news. This is the stuff of history, and there has always been bias in history. In fact, we've had some historians like the Roman Tacitus who practically thought that historians were supposed to play God and judge everyone they wrote about. Medieval European historians filled their books with stories of miracles and such. Any questions?
 
Plus, I think people are sick of journalists not reporting that something is a lie when it is a lie. That is reporting a fact, but journalists have been trained in the mind set of only reporting what he said or she said that there is a lot of misinformation out there.
 
And, I'm sorry but the story that you are using is not at all an opinion piece, if something doesn't look good, it doesn't look good. Plus, the people who write the headlines in the news are different from the people who write the stories.
 
Umm...there's nothing wrong with that headline. Bush painted a rosy picture of Iraq. It's not a bias headline -- Republicans will read that and say "things are going well" and Dems will say "That guy is nuts". But that's what Bush said. He believes things are going super in Iraq -- at least, that's what he said in his radio address.

As someone who writes headlines for a living, I can tell you it's hard to write them for people who read the same crap and sometimes you have to be creative and come up with catchy stuff. Besides, the poor guy was working on a Saturday editing the same damn boring radio address he probably edits every week. He probably has alot of adjectives he uses to make something sound interesting week after week.

And as for this specific story, blah. It's a straight forward "this is what he said" and the only reason it's news is because Bush does this every week and every week some poor guy has to write a summary of his remarks.

I'm not going to say the media has dropped the ball on Bush overall -- because they have -- but give the writer and editor a break. They are just reporting what Bush said.
 
Last edited:
drivemytrabant said:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041113/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush&cid=536&ncid=536

I will use this story as an example. For those of you who didn't read it--its a story from Yahoo via AP. The headline reads:
"Bush Paints Rosy Picture of Iraq Situation"
This is NOT an op-ed, repeat, NOT an op-ed, this is a "NEWS" article. However, instead of simply reporting what the President said in his weekly radio address--and running the head line "Bush sees progress made in Iraq" or "Bush assures Americans: Progress being made in Iraq"--the author of this story decides to interject some of her own personal opinions on the President's artistic abilities I guess. Do your job and report the news. If you wanna spout your opinion start a blog or be good enough(or controversial enough) to get paid for it.
Click to expand...

Am I reading the same story? I've read through this a few times and I don't see anything wrong with it at all. Where are these personal opinions that u mention? Could u point them out?
 
Re: Re: Whatever happened to journalists simply reporting the news?

bullet1973 said:


Am I reading the same story? I've read through this a few times and I don't see anything wrong with it at all. Where are these personal opinions that u mention? Could u point them out?
Click to expand...

I see little wrong with the story. I was refering to the headline if you read my post. The writer says Bush paints a rosy picture--the writers OPINION of what the President has said. I will agree with Dutch Partygirl and say that not all journilists are like this. But this is obviously the writer reporting her opinion of what was said instead of simply reporting the story. May I comment that just because some of you agree with the headline--doesn't make it fact. If your job is to report what the president says in his weekly radio address, and the president says everything is going great--then report it that way. We have PLENTY of people who get paid to voice their opinions, to disagree with the president everytime he opens his mouth, we don't need run of the mill AP reporters (or whoever wrote the headline MissMoo) to spout their opinions too. REPORT the news. Don't TELL us what the news is.
 
verte76 said:
There has always been a degree of bias when reporting the news. This is the stuff of history, and there has always been bias in history. In fact, we've had some historians like the Roman Tacitus who practically thought that historians were supposed to play God and judge everyone they wrote about. Medieval European historians filled their books with stories of miracles and such. Any questions?
Click to expand...
Just a comment: very interesting.
 
Re: Re: Re: Whatever happened to journalists simply reporting the news?

drivemytrabant said:


I see little wrong with the story. I was refering to the headline if you read my post. The writer says Bush paints a rosy picture--the writers OPINION of what the President has said. I will agree with Dutch Partygirl and say that not all journilists are like this. But this is obviously the writer reporting her opinion of what was said instead of simply reporting the story. May I comment that just because some of you agree with the headline--doesn't make it fact. If your job is to report what the president says in his weekly radio address, and the president says everything is going great--then report it that way. We have PLENTY of people who get paid to voice their opinions, to disagree with the president everytime he opens his mouth, we don't need run of the mill AP reporters (or whoever wrote the headline MissMoo) to spout their opinions too. REPORT the news. Don't TELL us what the news is.
Click to expand...

I work for a newspaper as a sub-editor and i have to say i have read or heard many stories which are supposed to be news stories but which are far more biased than this one. Saying that Bush 'painted a rosy picture of the situation in Iraq' hardly qualifies as 'spouting her opinions'!
 
I recall from US history class that around the 1910s-1920s, news switched from simple reporting to offering viewpoints on "how/what people should think" about the world.

And, as my government teacher told us many times last year, "You see headlines that say, Dog bites man. However, you will see ones that say, Man bites dog."
 
Re: Re: Re: Whatever happened to journalists simply reporting the news?

drivemytrabant said:
REPORT the news. Don't TELL us what the news is.
Click to expand...

Report what news? Simply deciding what qualifies as news and what can be disregarded involves making a value judgement about the relative importance of different events.
 
Re: Re: Re: Whatever happened to journalists simply reporting the news?

drivemytrabant said:
....If your job is to report what the president says in his weekly radio address, and the president says everything is going great--then report it that way....
Click to expand...

That headline DOES report it that way. Bush said everything is going great, everything is rosy in Iraq, no problems. So headline said "Bush says everything is rosy in Iraq". THAT'S WHAT BUSH SAID! The writer didn't say "Everything is rosy in Iraq" -- he attributed it to the person who did the talkinng. There is nothing opinionated about that headline.

I mean, are you saying this is not a rosy outlook? Because if this is not a rosy outlook, I don't know what is:

"Our forces have made significant progress in the last several days. They are taking back the city, clearing mosques of weapons and explosives stockpiled by insurgents and restoring order for law-abiding citizens," Bush said in his broadcast.

Several times, Bush says he is positive about the outlook in Iraq, optimistic I would say. Hey, if you go to thesaurus.com, guess what words are similar to optimistic? Eh, I'll save you the trouble, see the list below:

assured, bright, buoyant, cheerful, cheering, confident, encouraged, expectant, happy, high, hopeful, hoping, idealistic, merry, positive, promising, rose-colored, rosy, sanguine, sunny, trusting, upbeat, Utopian
 
Last edited:
Re: Re: Re: Re: Whatever happened to journalists simply reporting the news?

sharky said:


That headline DOES report it that way. Bush said everything is going great, everything is rosy in Iraq, no problems. So headline said "Bush says everything is rosy in Iraq". THAT'S WHAT BUSH SAID! The writer didn't say "Everything is rosy in Iraq" -- he attributed it to the person who did the talkinng. There is nothing opinionated about that headline.

I mean, are you saying this is not a rosy outlook? Because if this is not a rosy outlook, I don't know what is:

"Our forces have made significant progress in the last several days. They are taking back the city, clearing mosques of weapons and explosives stockpiled by insurgents and restoring order for law-abiding citizens," Bush said in his broadcast.

Several times, Bush says he is positive about the outlook in Iraq, optimistic I would say. Hey, if you go to thesaurus.com, guess what words are similar to optimistic? Eh, I'll save you the trouble, see the list below:

assured, bright, buoyant, cheerful, cheering, confident, encouraged, expectant, happy, high, hopeful, hoping, idealistic, merry, positive, promising, rose-colored, rosy, sanguine, sunny, trusting, upbeat, Utopian
Click to expand...


So the President IS optimistic about Iraq. He is not "painting a picture" of an optimistic (or rosy) Iraq. That is an opinion plain and simple. If the President is optimistic about Iraq --fine. If you are not --fine. Go write an op-ed. I don't need an interpretation of what the President said. Just tell me what the President said. You would think that would be easy enough.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Whatever happened to journalists simply reporting the news?

FizzingWhizzbees said:


Report what news? Simply deciding what qualifies as news and what can be disregarded involves making a value judgement about the relative importance of different events.
Click to expand...

The President's weekly radio address is news. Plain and simple. No decisions necessary.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whatever happened to journalists simply reporting the news?

drivemytrabant said:


The President's weekly radio address is news. Plain and simple. No decisions necessary.
Click to expand...

Where is it news? In the US? The UK? Turkmenistan? Angola?

Would it always be news? What if it occured on the same day as as the outbreak of a major conflict? Would it get pushed off the agenda?

Is it news regardless of what the President says? Would it still be reported if he spoke for five minutes on the merits of baked beans? Is it inherently newsworthy or dependent on what the President says?
 
I agree with the others in that this guy is simply reporting the news. The President did paint a rosy picture of Iraq. He's been doing that the whole time we've been in there. I don't see any problem with this news piece.
 
verte76 said:
I agree with the others in that this guy is simply reporting the news. The President did paint a rosy picture of Iraq. He's been doing that the whole time we've been in there. I don't see any problem with this news piece.
Click to expand...

You and me both. I'll be scratching my head over this one for a while yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

MrsSpringsteen
Fox News, Fake News!
Replies
4
Views
699
dazzledbylight
dazzledbylight
A
The Little stranger chapter 1
Replies
0
Views
979
annj
A
A
The little stranger Chapter 6
Replies
0
Views
550
annj
A
MrsSpringsteen
Eliza Dushku OpEd
Replies
1
Views
749
Moonlit_Angel
Moonlit_Angel
N
Barack Obama Appreciation & Farewell Thread
Replies
1
Views
585
the iron horse
the iron horse

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom