Analyzing John Mcmanus 'Seeking Truth In Journalism'

Having served nearly thirty years at CBS News, Mr. Goldberg had earned a reputation as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. However, when he observed his own industry, he realized the liberal media had completely missed their mission to give honest news. After years of sharing his observations and promoting more balanced reportings, Goldberg soon realized that no one listened because they believed they were doing the right thing. The liberal bias continued, therefore Bernard Goldberg decided to take the situation into his own hands and expose the distortion of the media himself. Goldberg’s breathtaking and shocking best seller book, Bias, reveals the close-mindedness of the news culture and their mission to entertain rather than share facts.

Not only is it the politicians on the news networks projecting their political viewpoints into the minds millions, but so are the newspapers and magazines that are pushing this liberal favoritism into our hands. It was Robert Bresler who noticed that “If you look at the major magazines such as Vanity Fair, New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and Harper's, they all reflect a distinctive liberal perspective” (13). Again, it is seen that liberal news coverage allows only one side to receive a fair hearing, and thus it is the American public that is left to suffer. Furthermore, Bresler has noticed:

In the study, each source was ranked based on the political leanings of its audience. As a result, it ranked sources such as Buzzfeed more liberal than average while it ranked sources such as the Rush Limbaugh Show more conservative than average. However, none of the sources earned a perfectly neutral ranking (Wormald). The correlation between news sources and their audience’s political leanings becomes interesting when compared to the type of content each news source produces. Rush Limbaugh, for example, is infamous for his conservative rhetoric, whereas Buzzfeed is known for its lighthearted quizzes and comical representation of liberal politics. This reveals something about our perception of truth: biased sources allow individuals to ‘select’ the truth. When conflicting information is pushed to the side, it becomes nonexistent. Subsequently, the sum of partial truths interpreted by an individual becomes a whole truth in their mind, especially when partial truths are reinforced by mainstream media sources such as Buzzfeed or the Rush Limbaugh Show. This is harmful because, as Lewis implied, the entire truth is lost in this process and mutual understanding becomes harder to

A liberal is a person that believes that the government should provide equality for all, while a conservative is a person that believes in limited government and that the government should provide the necessary freedom for people to pursue their own goals. Over time, it has been argued, mostly by conservatives, that there is a liberal bias in the media. Liberals have combated this idea with the belief that conservative media is devoted to making efforts to invoke fear and division in the general public. Though liberals make a fine counter-argument, it is easier to observe that the media is liberal-biased. The liberal versus conservative debate can be compared to facts versus values. Another reason for bias within the media is that a significant percentage of minorities, or smaller groups within the population that are often thought to be poorer, politically identify themselves as liberals. To make these minorities feel like the government is on their side as well as everyone else’s, the media must accommodate the needs of these minorities. Because of this, the media becomes liberal-biased.

In a general sense society derives much of their beliefs and indifferences from stories that are covered in the media. If the stories are being reported biased, how can we, as a society, see the whole picture? The author's purpose is to inform readers about the different biases that news and media sway by and to provide evidence that proves instances when these biases have weakened the validity of the reporter's story. "Journalist are like dogs-whenever anything moves, they begin to bark." (Gladstone, 2011/2013, P.25)

Journalists play an important part in the democratic process. Traditionally, the roles of the news media are to provide a forum for debate, represent opposing perspectives on the day’s issues and hold public officials accountable while serving their constituents. However, in recent decades, media has given way to biased forms of news— partisan media. In Matthew Levendusky’s “How Partisan Media Polarize America,” he explores if these partisan media influences viewers. The book’s second chapter, “What Do Partisan Media Actually Say?” concludes that partisan media promotes a larger agenda separately to Democrats and Republicans, attack the opposing side while denouncing compromise, and usually side with their candidate of choice during

Often times people utilize certain sources and watch certain news channels because these viewers can relate to the views on these sources. It can make one believe that his/her perspective is correct simply because that is what the new source is providing. Viewers watch news sources that share the same opinions as their own, because these viewers are just as bias as the sources; these viewers favor one side, as do the news sources. John Stossel, a Fox News reporter discusses the book “Bias” with author Bernie Goldberg, an ex CBS News reporter. John expected for ABC to read the book and disagree with Bernie on the ABC news channel (Goldberg and Stossel). However, these people were proud of not reading the book and gave it no attention. Even if one does not agree with a certain viewpoint, it is very important to hear the different perspectives because it allows the viewer to see and hear other people’s opinion. Because most news sources do not include all sides, it becomes difficult for an individual to

The national media is instrumental in allowing the electorate to develop opinions about contemporary issues. The media is incredibly influential and its power can be wielded for the benefit of all, or it can become a detriment to society. Some media outlets seek to sensationalize the news, sacrificing informing voters in favor of the bottom line. It is through people and organizations who seek to provide the most accurate and impartial view of an event that popular sovereignty gains much of its power. A commitment to informing the public, even when the information conflicts with a writer’s social and political philosophy, can be a difficult one to maintain. Yet, reporters uphold it everyday. This can be seen in the news site CNN (Cable News Network), which is known for having a liberal bias. Despite said bias, it does not shy away from portraying Hillary Clinton, a democrat, as a flawed candidate in an effort to be unbiased. Such a commitment is essential to creating a political and social dialogue in our nation, and as the saying goes, “when dialogue fails, democracy fails.”

Robert J. Samuelson’s factual article, “Picking Sides for the News,” is an essay that describes the different views and opinions on American news by American citizens. Samuelson claims that most Americans see people in the news business as “sloppy, biased, and self-serving.” He states that the news industry is divided by political views; Republican and conservative, and Democratic and liberal. Based on your political standpoint, you may find different news stations more supportive than others. Samuelson shows support to his viewpoint that many news companies “make news rather than just report it.”

The “roots” of bias in the media date back to the nineteenth century, and criticism about bias partly reflects a controversial idea about what exactly is the media’s role and purpose. Newspapers and television alike are suppose to exist to relay objective, factual information gathered and communicated by journalists and reporters.

News media has a largely, overwhelming influence on Americans in this day and age. Over the years, audiences have been exposed to various types of broadcast journalism, each with their own forms of bias to generate attention towards various topics. The audience perceive bias in news media program. An in-depth analysis of bias on opinionated news compared to non-opinionated news is key to figuring out how the news media may be sensationalizing a problem.

During this week I investigated many different news sources and different tactics they use. My research has shown the incredibly strong bias that the media has. To get a full grasp of the biases I had to use source diversity. My sources ranged from social media, to television, to web-based articles. Through my research, I discovered the effective and prevalent uses of loaded language, social media, sensationalism, bias in quotes, and the role of gatekeepers in media.

Using a “common understanding” of what liberal and conservatism means, National Review and the Progressive were chosen to be the standard of conservative and liberal media. Time and Newsweek were considered to be largely more neutral in their coverage. So, by comparing the two neutral magazines to the two partisan magazines the amount of bias could be measured (Adkins). The results found that Time and Newsweek proved to be largely centrist; however, there was a slight bias to the center-left. This finding, however, was not statistically significant and the two publications remain in the “center” range (Adkins). Other studies have shown that there is little evidence to support the notion that the media as a whole is significantly biased in one direction or the other. However, there is evidence that there is a slight liberal bias in television network news (D’Alessio). Despite these findings, 70% of Americans believe that the media as a whole are biased compared to just 55% in 2014. However, earlier findings and studies show that on a large scale there is roughly a balance between conservative and liberal media sources which refutes the idea that as a whole the media are “biased”. Instead, it is more akin to a “tug-of-war” in which each side balances each other out. So this leads to the question as to why a greater number of

There are many ways to find your own truth in journalism. An example of how to find out the truth is to come up with your own conclusion after gathering information from multiple news stations. Another way to find out the truth is to use the SMELL test. The SMELL test is a test which makes you ask the question, “Why are they telling me this?”, “Where’s the evidence?”, “Does it logically make sense based on the facts?”, and “What’s missing in the provided information?”. Many people who are aware of the bias in the media will use many ways to come up with their own conclusion as to what the actual truth

What this quote is basically referring to is since people can’t spend too much time skim and scanning articles to find the truth in them. There is now outlets being created to help the viewers find the truth in journalism reportings therefore helping improve journalism because it is checking on journalist to make sure they don’t report lies due to their biases. McManus in his article talks about how now in modern days there is too much biased views in news and has lead to the creation of small news outlets that are online who try to report news but without all the biased writings. There are smaller news stations that focus on finding the truth and not being biased on their reporting but more of showing both views to a situation. Shows like these are appearing online nowadays such as one called The Young Turks. Although they seem biased they will help the viewer on detecting the truth from the lies in news by taking different viewpoints basically going through the trouble to find the truth in different reportings and just reporting the facts. One method people can use to determine the truth is by using the SMELL test. What the SMELL test is basically breaking down an article for a person to