The Media Bias Thread

This thread is inaugurated to discuss issues of media bias, misrepresentation and conflicts of interest.

(Everyone who has it in for Fox News now has an official outlet. )

First post: ABC News Nightline to spend entire broadcast on Friday 30 April reading the names of American dead in Iraq.

This controversial broadcast comes one day before the one-year anniversary of President Bush's aircraft carrier stunt on board the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln on which he delivered a televised speech announcing the end to major combat operations in Iraq.

The Sinclair Group, which owns five or six ABC affiliates, has publicly refused to air Nightline this evening. In response, Senator John McCain has released a open letter to Sinclair in which he derides their censorship as a disservice to the American public and as "unpatriotic."

Interestingly enough, even though Nightline will be blacked out on each of those stations, one of the Fox affiliates will broadcast Nightline in its regular 11:35 pm time slot. This marks the first time that an ABC News program has been broadcast on another network.

Some commentators accuse Ted Koppel of having a political agenda, seeing that he chose to air this program not on, say, Memorial Day, but so close to the one-year anniversary of Bush's famous speech. On the other hand, Koppel has a proven history of classy, dignified and reasonably thorough and accurate reporting.

The program promises to be a television version of a famous edition of Life magazine from the early 1970s entitled "One Week's Dead," in which part of the issue was dedicated to publishing the photographs of American servicemen who had died that week in Viet Nam. Regardless of whether you support the war in Iraq, this program's intent is to remind us of the costs of war--really the costs to the United States only, as it does not even begin to consider Iraqi deaths or coalition casualties. At it's best, it should be a sobering reminder of the seriousness of our undertaking in Iraq. And at its worst, it may just be a sneaky political pot-shot at a White House that has, so far, failed to produce the results in Iraq that it promised.

Ignore this thread completely then...

And the way things are going one day soon there'll just be one "The Official Television Thread" on this board.

Why are you so incapable of contributing towards this discussion in a meaningful manner?

Is this not going to be rather a turn off for most viewers? Everybody respects the sacrifice of those who have given their lives in service to their country and the liberation of Iraq from a brutal dictator, but even the most diehard of patriots will find it difficult to sit for 30 minutes listening to just a list of names being read out. And will the program be interrupted by paid commercial advertizing?

You tell me what the point is in having two topics on the same subject open.

When I click on the link which you have provided, it brings me back to this one. Hence, my perplexed response.

Why not try it yourself and see what happens?

Media Carta
&
Indy Media

...go some way to ride roughshod over the pervasive and growing influence of our Western media approach.

I never understand the term "unpatriotic". How is it unpatriotic to critise the government if they are mucking up? If US networks are going to take that stance you might as well be living in thw USSR.

Ah, I see your point. It was supposed to point to this thread which would have made much more sense!

Well that does make sense and your comment within that context is entirely valid.

And when it is late at night, we are all prone to making mistakes.

The network didn't take that stance, a company that owns a handful of local TV stations (which happen to be ABC affiliates) took that stance.

And then John McCain called their stance unpatriotic.