Comments on: Journalistic Malpractice?

By: Dimsdale

Dimsdale — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:44:18 +0000

The funny thing is, the leftward biased media was responsible for the creation of Fox News. If the media was as objective as some on this site suppose, there would have been no need for Fox. I suppose, by extension, you could say the same of talk radio, and the popularity of both is testament to both the conservative nature of the American people and the liberal bent of the mainstream media.

By: Dimsdale

Dimsdale — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:22:13 +0000

Perhaps Mr. Partridge should review the facts and answer the question instead of crying “Bush dunnit!” Ooops! I mean “Fox dunnit!” Did the NYTimes do this or not, and is it an example of journalistic malpractice, political bias, and omission as a lie?

And “dependency on foreign oil” and “dependency on oil” are two different things with two different answers. Yes, there is overlap, but don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining (see “antropocentric global warming” and “undocumented workers, i.e. illegal aliens.”

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Wed, 20 May 2009 03:56:27 +0000

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By: Darlene

Darlene — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:35:49 +0000

Tell me you are kidding Brian, please. You spent an all that time arguing whether there should be a question mark in the title? (answer – Yes) Did you actually believe that would cause the readers to disregard the question? (answer – Yes). Well, it seems your “rule of thumb” doesn’t always work, now does it? (eh em, it works there, answer – No).

Oh, and by the way, my answer to the question … Journalistic Malpractice? … is Yes, i do believe it is.

By: Steve McGough

Steve McGough — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:19:57 +0000

I’m not a big fan of punctuation in headlines myself, but I think a commentary blog’s standards should be considered different than an official news organization like FoxNews, MSNBC and others. I’ve always said this site is not a news site, but a commentary site.

Therefore – as example – our polls are pretty loose and certainly not scientific. One thing that I will admit to is (trying to) tweak my headlines to improve search results.

Remember when the word commentary would be prominent at the end of a newscast? Maybe we need that word plastered all during news casts these days?

By: Brian Partridge

Brian Partridge — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:09:56 +0000

I was told once that whenever there was a question mark at the end of a title (tease, for TV), the answer was almost always negative.

“Miss California to lose her crown?” No.
“Obama birth certificate conspiracy?” Nope, sorry.
“You Decide: Ready for a smaller, pricier car?” Clearly not. (Actually that one is real, right now on FoxNews.com. And it’s a poll. What a great question, I’m sure it’ll spark debate between both sides: the “I like my big big, cheap cars” and the other side, which… is basically no one. I can’t hear anyone say “Hells yeah, bring on that dinky expensive car!”

MSNBC.com has the same question, but (in my opinion) phrased as a less leading question: “Are you willing to pay more for a fuel-efficient vehicle?” Makes more sense, because of what it means to the debate. FoxNews wants to drill home that cars will be smaller and more expensive, but doesn’t mention anything about their effect on our dependency to foreign oil.

Ironically, the other question on FoxNews.com right now is a real question. It’s not about something that’s already happened, because it still remains unknown. ”Missing Link?”, talking about a fossil of a 47-million-year-old monkey fossil. They’re not claiming to being able to answer the question, it’s an honest, open-ended query.

So, “Journalistic Malpractice?” Well, either you don’t know and you’re posing the question to the community, or you know and the answer is no. Otherwise, let’s drop the question mark and be more firm in our knowledge as we deliver information to the audience.