Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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 Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:58 am Post subject: Warning labels for biased articles (German blog) |
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Haven’t checked this site in awhile – some good articles coming out of Germany – (I guess, if we tried really hard, we could find some use for this warning label over here, too….):
German blog: Davids Medienkritik (Politically Incorrect Observations on Reporting in the German Media) – David Kaspar and Ray D.
| Quote: | “Warning Labels for Biased Articles?” - 4/5/05
What a great idea: Warning labels for biased articles! Jeffrey Gedmin of the Aspen Institute in Berlin made this hilarious suggestion in an article published in Germany's daily WELT. (The cartoon on the left added by us.) …. This is Gedmin's article (3/29/05):
"I hate excessive regulation. Nevertheless I wonder if journalism couldn’t benefit from what is the norm in the food industry. I can read about the ingredients of my spaghetti sauce on the jar’s label. Why shouldn’t I know more about the news that I consume?
Take the often one-sided reporting on Iraq. I recently read an interview of Rod Norland, chief of Newsweek’s Baghdad office. When asked why we should be optimistic about democracy in the Middle East, he answered, “So who’s optimistic?” His response to a question about why George W. Bush cares about the Iraqi people, he responded, “Who says that he does?” Nordland has clearly stated opinions. So do I. Shouldn’t his writings have a warning label? Something like “Nordland was against the Iraq War. He thinks that Arabic democracy is an illusion and that George W. Bush is heartless and cynical.” If we did that we wouldn’t get the wrong idea about his objectivity and neutrality.
Take the reporting about the USA in, for example, Der Tagesspiegel. Its reporter writes articles for the news pages and a column for the op-ed page. I frequently have a hard time differentiating between the two. Sometimes the news is so permeated by the author’s opinion that I would like to see the following label: “Malte Lehming thinks that the president of the United States is a war-mongering ayatollah whose conservative-religious revolution is destroying American democracy.” ....**CONTINUED** |
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