The K Experience

I wanna pose a question to the American (USA) public. Let's say for example that I, a foreigner, have been living in the US for a good few months now, and have been doing my best to keep abreast of politics as told by the mainstream media. To get a fair, balanced, unbiased report of ... lets say... the presidential campaign that's going on (just to pick something random), who would you recommend I listen to? Cos right now, I seem to be having a few problems...

I've been listening to a whole lot of news, on a fair variation of channels I would say, and I'm trying to not be influenced by the varying views of the different reporters who front these stations. I'll be listening to MSNBC with shows like Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and it's quite noticeable that the station is fairly liberal, and mostly support the democrats. I'll switch over to FOX (on the odd occasion when I want to make myself angry), and I'll watch the unpretentiously titled "The O'Reilly Factor" with Billo for example, or maybe the odd news cast, which is clearly conservative and Republican supporting. I may even switch over to CNN, and be faced with people who used to have problems with differentiating between Obama and Osama, not to mention problems reporting accurately on China and Zimbabwe (which I will get onto in another entry).

To my knowledge of American broadcast media (which is not extensive), these seem to be the biggest players. There is also, CBS, PBC and NBC, but how many people listen to them exclusively?

Now, inform my if I'm wrong, but conservatives who watch the news are probably gonna be watching FOX, and will therefore be getting lots of anti-Obama information, and pro McCain stuff with a sprinkle of Palin praise. So probably won't be getting a balanced view on Obama, which is their choice, as they have probably already made up their mind. Liberals will not be watching FOX, but will probably be watching MSNBC and listening to Olbermann bashing McCain, and saying how stupid Bush is, etc etc. So it ends up each group preaching to their own choir.

Let's say I'm a middle of the the road kinda of guy, who really hasn't made up his mind. I may switch on the box to FOX and get told that Obama is dead in the water, or he's a Muslim or something, then I'll switch on MSNBC who will tell me that McBush Palin is a recipe for disaster. Sorry to go on about this again, but it just seems to blow my mind. Coming from a land where the political affiliations of broadcasting stations are less obvious, if present at all, I don't see how broadcasting companies who's primary role is to report news can be so blatant about their political allegiance. After all, it's called NEWS, not OPINIONS. If I wanted to hear opinions, I would go somewhere else.

So I ask again, to get a fair, balanced, unbiased report of what's happening, where do I go? Or shall I just stick with NPR?

[Sources: This Modern World, First Friday Collective]

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AntiFox  - No to Fox News |09-15-2008 18:09:23 I can t say who is best, but I can say who is worst. don't listen to Fox News. I live in the US, and read bbc.co.uk they have an America's section. read the US news, without the US spin. Reply | Quote

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