Above All The Media Cannot Be Seen As Boring

"It isn't that the media means to mislead the people, but they just cannot seem to tolerate being thought of as boring." MA

"The media has been known to purposely mislead the public if only to foster their own political beliefs...For example, even though both Bush and Clinton had sufficient votes for nominations prior to their respective conventions, the media at times attempted to inject doubt in order to maintain listener interest and probably justify their being at the conventions." MA

"It seems that it is journalistic nature to overemphasize and glorify the real picture, therefore misinforming the public." PA

"The present ratings system places intense pressure on news programs to find news stories that will attract the most viewers no matter how outrageous. This pushes reporters to the point of drumming up stories where no news is happening in order to boost their program's ratings. This rat race has a way of forcing television news to at times twist the truth to make a story more appealing to their viewers. This may even lead to circumventing the truth in a vain attempt to create a story out of nothing. . . Trading its soul for money and power, the media no loner portrays the truth of news to the people. Reporting the news no longer rests on hard facts but rather on its appeal to the greater audience." CA

"Many people do not realize that there is bias in what is not printed as well as what is. " OR

"If the journalist breaks. . . a story that the public will find shocking and interesting, it will sell better." NY

"Headlines are usually the first things people read and if they're not interesting then the people won't read the rest of the article. The problem I find here is that the headline makes you buy the paper and read the article, but then you find that the article is a hit and miss on the issues. If they give you a snappy headline they could at least give you a complete story." SD

"The problem is that in the real world, where most people are only barely paying attention, the headline Bill Clinton, Draft Dodger caught their attention. Bill Clinton Talks About the Draft (did) not." SD

"The papers with captions such as The Governor's Gennifer, sold well, and increased circulation is the goal of any paper or television show." PA

"The New York Times printed a story about Mondale having the biggest lead of any nonincumbent in history. On the same morning John Hart triumphed in New Hampshire despite the story. Hart, however, lacked the power to overcome huge fund-raising and organizational advantage that Mondale got from early front-runner status. . . Such headlines as Bush Needs Big Victory in Tonight's Debate, Nervous Bush Staff Sends Out Resumes, He Can't Win, Pollster Says of Bush, and Bush Showing Is Too Little, Too Late indicate that the Presidential Election of 1992 may have been undemocratically influenced." MA

". . . people have to use several media sources to understand the whole story and even then they may receive false images of candidates. People should be able to watch a newscast or read an article, without wondering if it is the truth, or a twisting of it." PA

"The media can take a simple little statement and twist and turn it until the little statement has been blown completely out of proportion or twisted into something that it really isn't." SD

EXAMPLE

"When Vice-President Dan Quayle attacked television character Murphy Brown in a family values speech, the media rebuked relentlessly. They magnified and distorted the one-line comment, pelting Quayle for identifying with a fictional character." PA

"The media also tends to alter the candidates speech to mean something that the candidate certainly does not mean. When a media source does this they usually distort the information to make it appealing to a certain ethnic group, race, political faction, or special-interest group. Sometimes the media alters the speeches to make a candidate unappealing to all of these groups. For instance in a June issue of Newsweek they took one statement . . .and based the President's position on race on this one statement." OK

"Some television news cuts away from live speeches. Then an anchorman cuts in and describes, in his own words and views, what the candidate was about to say. The commentator gives his views of the speech and those views could be wrong or misleading...What a candidate said could be changed by the media. For this reason, a candidate would rather explain his ideas directly to the voters rather than let the media interpret for him."MA

"The press filter between the candidates and the American people is very thick. This malady may be remedied by longer sound bites of candidates' speeches so that people can hear what is actually said rather than a journalist's version." IL

"There was some controversy over our winning U.S. Senate candidate, Bob Packwood. Ten women have accused him of sexual harassment, and the media may have known about it before the election. If they had told us about it, Packwood probably would have lost the election because Les Au Coin came very close to beating him as it was. The media may not have had that information at that time, but if they did, they definitely influenced the election by not publicizing it." OR

"When people buy a newspaper they assume that the coverage is precise and informative, yet by leaving things out, sometimes even adding a little, and all in all bending the story to their own like, the author can actually make his article into an advertisement for whatever product he wishes. " OH