OK DUers, do you truly want a fair and balanced media

or do you want all liberal all the time? It seems that some, NOT ALL, around here criticize everything the press does. I am old enough to remember when we truly had a free and open press in this country and I agree that it isn't that way so much anymore. But really and truly if Kerry and/or Edwards or any other Dem does something stupid(and they will), do you get offended when the media goes into a frenzy about it? It appears that Katie Couric was tough on Kerry tonight and some around here are saying that she must certainly be a republican. Charles Gibson asked Kerry some tough questions a couple of months ago, and he had to be a blankity blankin' righty. It would certainly be nice if journalists would start investigating bush and all the corrupt happenings in his administration, but lets face it folks, he rarely makes himself available so they talk to Kerry, and some of them may actually be trying to be journalists. So I say, keep on being tough, but lets balance it out. The people need to know. All I'm asking for is REAL fair and balanced coverage.

the news media are there to REPORT the news, not make it.

the fact that the news media goes into a "frenzy" over anything shows that they are more concerned with receiving credit and making money, than giving americans the truth so we can sort it out.

it's either fair and balanced, or it's not. simple.

edit to add to "receiving credit" the all important factor of "making money".

And that means, don't ask Kerry any questions you won't ask bush*.

I want objectivity. I want truth.

John Kerry can stand up to tough questioning; we've seen that. But we KNOW bush* can't... he wasn't subjected to it in the last 10 years, because he wasn't taken seriously, and now, they say it's "disrespectful."

FUCK THAT.

It's disrespectful to ME when you don't hold the "president" to a standard you'd demand of a 14-year-old... TELL THE FUCKING TRUTH.

No free passes for the asshole occupying the White House... the asshole destroying my country.

Michael Moore and the many anti-Bush books took up the slack.

However, historically, the press in this country has never really been fair or balanced. William Randolph Hearst's newspapers were jingoistic and are considered to be one of the reasons we went to war in Spain in 1898. And when goes farther back in history, one finds even more partisanship-Chicago Trib was pro Lincoln, but other papers, especially one in NYC, was not.

What I want is not all papers/other media being required to be fair and balanced, but that there be more liberal voices in the news area. Consolidation of media, I believe, has caused the balance to be tipped in favor of conservatives. The classic example is the Arkansas Gazette, a venerable newspaper that had a liberal slant. It was bought out by conservatives and consolidated with the Arkansas Democrat (which, despite its name, is very conservative). When the paper merged, the liberal newspapermen and columnists were fired. Now instead of a conservative state-wide paper and a liberal one, there is one conservative one (though the liberal Arkansas Times is trying to fill the void).

all liberal all the time would disgust me too

you can't tell whether they are on the left or the right..they report all the news that's fit to print, period.

I'll sort it out myself.

the Tv news, fair and balanced media are a democratic necessity

I don't care if they ask Kerry hard questions. I just want them to start being serious journalist and news reporters. A large precentage of people still think Sadam Hussein is linked to 9/11. That's the media's fault. They bring on these talking head bozo pundits that fog up the issues and events so no one can tell what is really happening.

People still think Ahbu Grhaib happened because a handful of low ranking soldiers were hazing prisoners. The the rest of the world gets to hear the truth because their media is supperior. Then American public has no clue as to why the rest of the world thinks poorly of us. That's our medias fault

When it comes to the tough issues of the day our media sucks balls period.

Which means not using right wing talking points, or even factcheck.org, as the basis for their questions. I just want them to read and know at least as much as I do. They get paid millions a year, would it be too much to expect them to do something besides quote somebody else who's quoting another newsmodel who is repeating press releases and on and on.

Being one who is also old enough to remember when the news involved real journalism, and not just getting the latest fascist point of view from the corporate sponsor, and my answer is yes, I demand a free press, good, bad, whatever, print or show it all. But make it a truly FREE press, one free of using tag lines like "Fair and Balanced" to convince the ignorant masses that they alone have the "real" news. One free from FCC oversight. One that doesn't use intentionally skewed polls. One that shows what is really happening in Iraq, the daily death on BOTH sides, the bodies returning home undercover.

It appears to me that you have taken exception to the remarks of others here tonight regarding Ms. Couric's approach in questioning and have in turn decided to call to task those who spoke up. Now while some do complain at every jab delivered by the press, most do not, unless it is grievous. Considering Ms. Couric virtually orgasms in the presence of those holding a stolen office and yet finds her "journalistic" integrity when around those that are not signing her paycheck, I would call into question her intent. Of course the root keyword in all this is Journalist and few of today's news readers qualify. Katie Couric is not a journalist, she is at best a self serving Stepford wife wanna be newsreader.

You may now return to your bread and circuses.

thats all I ask.
I don't care if there are right wing nut jobs spewing faux news, and I don't care if we get a 24 hour a day liberal smattering of liberal slanted news, they both have their place.
But what I really really want is one unbiased, objective center for real news, holding both sides accountable, encouraging real discussion for the benefit of america, in fact I believe that would advance the welfare of our country far more than having left and right wing megaphones drowning each other out in rhetoric.

was making dinner. So I didn't get the name of the guy doing the interview or the interviewee, but the guest was some representative of the PNAC. The Canadian host centered his questions on the reason we invaded Iraq, which turned out to be faulty intelligence, according to the PNAC guy. Well, the reason I didn't post this was because I couldn't concentrate on getting all the names right and questions.

However, my point was that the Canadian interviewer didn't let this guy say his propaganda and leave. He kept going after him, not letting him distract and change the subject. He wasn't rude but he didn't let the PNAC guy say what he couldn't back up. The end result that I heard was that the PNAC guy still maintained that it was the right decision to invade Iraq even though every reason he had presented turned out to be stupid. This is what a journalist does. Now why can't we do the same?

I do crave some degree of liberal validation, of course, which is why I am here, and places like this are where I would want to get that.

I want my news absolutely, positively, without a doubt, neutral. "Just the Facts, Ma'am".

That's probably something you'll never hear from a Freeper! I am becoming convinced that they consider neutral to be ragingly liberal.

I'm tired of Bush generally being treated with kid gloves while having "journalists" like Couric basically roll their eyes at Kerry when he talks about protecting America from terrorists. It's a massive double standard.

Asking tough questions of Kerry is great. Just do the same thing to Bush, and don't let him get away with not answering the question.

The fact that so many people are misinformed (e.g. large percentages of Bush supporters according to that PIPA report) shows how horrible our media is doing at exposing the truth these days.