One of the age old arguments in journalism is the perception of bias in the reporting of events and of public figures. Similar to two people viewing an auto accident and giving entirely different accounts of the same event, you can have two folks of different political persuasions read or watch a particular news story and nine times out of ten they'll disagree on its alleged slant.
We are all human and have our distinct preferences and dislikes, and most of us can appreciate that. The problems arise when the media puts on the facade of neutrality when its obvious they have an agenda. The immense popularity of the "right wing media" and the "blogosphere" is due simply to the fact that they don't attempt to hide they lean towards a certain perspective. You know what your going to get and your free to accept or reject it.
The
Tulsa World and the
Daily Oklahoman are no exceptions to the charge of bias in their reporting. Since proving bias is often a subjective exercise, poignant examples of alleged bias should be presented to readers so they can decide for themselves. This is what we'll attempt in this article.
Our fellow blogger Michael Bates at
batesline.com has exhaustively chronicled The
Tulsa World's alleged bias and their
unconstitutional attempts to silence him. Below is an excerpt from an August 17th blog post regarding alleged bias in reporting a joint townhall meeting Senator Coburn had with Rep. Dan Boren:
Tom Coburn, passed along correspondence concerning several attempts by Coburn's office to correct errors appearing in the Tulsa Whirled.
I was shocked that your paper reported that I had "barred (my) office from answering questions on the meeting" I am holding jointly with U.S. Representative Dan Boren when I have no such blanket policy of not discussing this meeting and when no such policy had been communicated to your paper from my office. Your paper also reported that my office had not weighed in with FEMA on behalf of Oklahoma when our state was ravaged by wildfires when we had, in fact, weighed in with FEMA officials.
No one should have to remind any newspaper that manufacturing facts and indirect quotations is highly unethical and unprofessional and a serious offense to subscribers and readers. No provision in our Constitution grants news organizations the right to invent facts or quotations.
Bates along with Chris Medlock of
Medblogged have both
received cease and desist orders from the paper to immediately stop
"infringing" on the World's copyright by
"reproducing articles in whole or in part and by linking to World's articles without authorization."
The Oklahoma Political News Service received a cease and desist email from the
Daily Oklahoman at the beginning of this venture in June. Admittedly, we did reproduce some of their articles in whole and in part, only because other Oklahoma bloggers were doing the exact same thing. In fact, still are. We wonder why they haven't received cease and desist orders as well?
In the
January/February 1999 Columbia Journalism Review, The
Daily Oklahoman was cited as one of the worst papers in the nation. Below is an excerpt of part of the reason they came to that conclusion:
Former staffers say it wasn't long ago that the complexion of the front page, not just the newsroom, was influenced by race. "When I was on the city desk in the late seventies," says former city editor Splaingard, "the rule was you didn't run pictures of blacks on the front page." And while everyone says the "rule" is long dead, it's not always easy to tell.
In two months selected at random, January and August 1998, the paper ran 187 front-page photos, featuring nearly 200 individuals. Only ten photos had blacks identified in the cutline, and only four of those actually accompanied stories featuring blacks. Even more recently, says former Oklahoman reporter Charolette Aiken, "the Oklahoman put black faces on the front only if they were athletes, a black Republican, or a bad guy." Observer editor Troy once wrote of the paper's plantation mentality: "The paper has been quietly and effectively racist in all its long history." Gaylord refused requests from cjr for an interview, but in a brief phone conversation from his home the publisher reacted testily when asked if putting blacks on the front page ever displeased him: "Oh, come on, you're crazy," he drawled. "Quit bothering me. Go on home." Then he hung up."
For those of you not aware, the editor of the Oklahoma Political News Service is an African American. Maybe it's just a coincidence. We'll let you decide.
Posted at 8/31/2006 07:00:00 AM
