We Shade The News--You Figure It Out
Related to the question of news v. commentary is that of news framed in such a way as to steer the reader in a definite direction.
Case in point: "Police say severity of attack on homeless man warrants reward"
My letter to the editor and the editor's reply:
Headline shows bias in reporting of story?
by Terry Lee Clark, 4/22/2006
Dear Editor,
Your bias is showing (again) with the headline, “Police say severity of attack on homeless man warrants reward.”
The obvious implication is that the appropriateness of the amount of a proffered reward by law-enforcement agencies is dependent on one’s social standing, rather than the savagery of the crime.
Thus, if one of Humboldt’s social elites were harmed even in the slightest, that would merit a large reward, while an attack on a mentally challenged person should result in, oh, say, a review of the situation by the attackers’ peers…
Terry Lee Clark
Arcata
(Editor’s note: Our headline says exactly what you said we lacked: The severity of the beating warrants a reward, not the fact that he is homeless.)
_____________________________________________________
I love the non sequitur response. A member of our community was savagely attacked. There should be no question that a reward to find the perpetrators is in order. And yet the headline makes it sound as if the Arcata Police Department is on the defensive in offering a reward where a HOMELESS man is concerned. And the picture of the victim is added for good measure. Hummm, scraggly-looking man, doesn't look like you or me, not my concern, he probably had it comin', and heck, the people that did it did a public service, getting one of them HOMELESS bums off the streets.
How about a neutral headline, "Reward Offered To Find Those Who Beat Arcata Man". But, of course, that's not the purpose of misleading headlines. Rather, such headlines plant ideas in the minds of the gullible, and in the minds of those who do not have the time to read the article that follows. And then the paper can point to the decent article that followed and say "we're not biased--read the article--and the headline was factually correct". Some, alas, have learned the wrong lessons from Orwell.
TLC
Case in point: "Police say severity of attack on homeless man warrants reward"
My letter to the editor and the editor's reply:
Headline shows bias in reporting of story?
by Terry Lee Clark, 4/22/2006
Dear Editor,
Your bias is showing (again) with the headline, “Police say severity of attack on homeless man warrants reward.”
The obvious implication is that the appropriateness of the amount of a proffered reward by law-enforcement agencies is dependent on one’s social standing, rather than the savagery of the crime.
Thus, if one of Humboldt’s social elites were harmed even in the slightest, that would merit a large reward, while an attack on a mentally challenged person should result in, oh, say, a review of the situation by the attackers’ peers…
Terry Lee Clark
Arcata
(Editor’s note: Our headline says exactly what you said we lacked: The severity of the beating warrants a reward, not the fact that he is homeless.)
_____________________________________________________
I love the non sequitur response. A member of our community was savagely attacked. There should be no question that a reward to find the perpetrators is in order. And yet the headline makes it sound as if the Arcata Police Department is on the defensive in offering a reward where a HOMELESS man is concerned. And the picture of the victim is added for good measure. Hummm, scraggly-looking man, doesn't look like you or me, not my concern, he probably had it comin', and heck, the people that did it did a public service, getting one of them HOMELESS bums off the streets.
How about a neutral headline, "Reward Offered To Find Those Who Beat Arcata Man". But, of course, that's not the purpose of misleading headlines. Rather, such headlines plant ideas in the minds of the gullible, and in the minds of those who do not have the time to read the article that follows. And then the paper can point to the decent article that followed and say "we're not biased--read the article--and the headline was factually correct". Some, alas, have learned the wrong lessons from Orwell.
TLC
posted by TLC's Place at 10:45 PM
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