[BC] News in the 21st Century

[Alan Kline]

Of course the media has a bias. Each and every human being on the planet 
has a bias of some kind or another. That's not wrong, that's just how we 
are.

Every newscast involves decisions that somebody, somewhere will disagree 
with. There's only so much time in the newscast, even for the 24/7 cable 
operations, and there's far more news coming in than anyone could 
possibly use.

So, somebody has to decide what goes into the cast and what doesn't, and 
those decisions generally reflect the attitudes of the people in that 
newsroom.

The only way to remove "bias" is to let computers rank the importance of 
news items, and let *them* stack the newscast. Even then, the decisions 
would be influenced by the people who write the software. Something like 
the RPI in college basketball. Anyone who believes the RPI is unbiased 
is really living under a rock...

There is hope, however. Yesterday morning, we were sitting around the 
control room before our newscast, wondering why the CBS Early Show was 
devoting so much time to speculating about Beyonce's marital status. The 
   producer, a bright young woman in her early 20's, told us that "you 
won't see that story in *my* newscast." The director asked her why.

Producer's answer, bluntly, was "Because it's not news."

Thank G** that somebody that young still understands...

ak

> Any who beleives that the media has no bias lives under a misconception.