Bias

• Journalistic standards?
• Glenn Beck and bias, Bernie Goldberg (youtube)
• The state of debate (CNN, O'Reilly and Geraldo, McGlaughlin Group)
• Jon Stewart and Crossfire (McGlaughlin Group and rich vs super rich parody)
• Left/Right comparisons (old maps, new maps, big sort)
• Chomsky, Hermann and Lewis on liberal media
• Another kind of bias? What makes for good ratings 'bait?'
• Analogies: Coke and Pepsi, anyone?
  • Pepsi-Coke-Pepsi-Coke-Pepsi
• Journalists vs their employers (scene from 'Network')
• Press and public opinion
• Pierce's 'Rules'
• Democracy Now!
• Stewart and Larry King (and CNN)
• So what, you ask?

News 'filters' (from Herman and Chomsky vs Glenn Beck and the Overton Window)

1. Ownership--
• corporate concentration, size, cost, 'interlocking directorates,' pressure from the 'top'
• Sure, but can ma and pa outfits run 24/7 cable networks??
2. Advertising
• Fear and Favor , Toyota's problems , Glenn Beck
• Ever heard of rBST?
3. Source
• How many correspondents cover the White House, Pentagon, Capitol??
• news media outlets and source bias (using phony 'experts')
• David Barstow's NY Times story (subsequent media coverage)
  • Gen. McInerney: Iran taunting US (NYT piece), PBS, WH
• Fake news videos, sometimes with attribution, sometimes not
• Fox and ACORN
• Answering questions (in Jon Stewart's opinion)
4. Flak
• Media Matters, PR firms, O'Reilly on Moyers, AIM, Olbermann and Carlson on O'Reilly, Wolf Blitzer and Michael Moore, Flak on Fox flak
5. Anti-communist/terrorism
• Bill Maher, Peter Arnett, Hugo Chavez, (this from Fox, this from Jon Stewart), Ahmedinejad
6. Other filtering pressures
• Ratings bait, beats, et al.
• Careerism
• News cycle and access

Censorship

• Project Censored
• Press freedom index (2002, 2004, 2011 )

Propaganda, War(s), Global warming

• The four strategies
• Colin Powell after the invasion
• Persuasion
• David Barstow's NY Times story (subsequent media coverage)
• Gen. McInerney: Iran taunting US (NYT piece), PBS, WH
• Bill Moyers' special (clip)
• Fox, Iran and Iraq
• Selling the Persian Gulf War
• Dick Cheney and 20/20 foresight
• Rumsfeld (gets a little dicey), passing the buck, busted on Face the Nation
• Discrediting those money-grubbing millionaire global warming alarmist scientists (and spokespeople)
  • Debate, British style
  • American-style
• Osama bin Laden's death (Fox, CNN, Democracy Now!)

Fear (TV ads)

• 'America at risk'
• 'Terror alerts'
• Is he 'the one?'
• Beck, Limbaugh and H1N1
• Stephen Colbert's Super PAC
• Magazine covers
• Stephen Colbert and immigration
• Keep fear alive
• Dukakis Furlough program
• Obama and 'urban terrorism'
• Call me Harold (Ford)
• Obama and 'the promise'
• Jesse Helms' 'hands' ad
• Romey for president??
• Gingrich for president??
• Rick Perry's war
• Colbert's Super PAC
• anti-ads . . . (Novick 1, 2 )

Issues, resources

• Populism
• Tea Party & OWS
• WikiLeaks
• Fake News (report 1, report 2)

Some techniques commonly used

• Mighty Wurlitzer (against the 'general's revolt')
• Mighty Wurlitzer--what is it, how does it work? ? (more recently)
• Astroturf ('America's power'; its backers); opposition research; Tea Party)
• Mighty Wurlitzer (from NY Times story)
• Ad hominem
  • John Kerry (MoveOn.org's response; Bush vs Kerry records;)
  • Richard Clarke
  • John McCain (Rove and Co.)
  • Max Cleland
  • Paul O'Neill
  • Al Gore
• Intentional 'leaks' (Kerry, Valerie Plame, Scott Ritter, Jessica Lynch)
• Distraction ('terror alerts')
• Astroturf
• Best-selling books
• Spin, talking points, sound bites, photo-ops, opposition research
• 3rd party technique (fake news, think tanks, Persian Gulf War campaign)
• Channel one ("Captive audience" trailer)
• Think tanks
  • and war
  • Heritage Foundation
  • Center for American Progress
  • Think tanks and the news
• Videos from the Onion (warning--dripping sarcasm)
  • no. 1 issue for 2008
  • Time's 'least influential'
  • Home Depot's heroes tribute
  • America's immigration problem
  • The 'war on terror'
  • News of some sort from Haiti
  • Fox's Shep Smith off script

Fox and Friends

• Obama and the 'angry black man'
• Anger management at the White House (CNN)
• McChrystal and Rolling Stone and Mainstream (scooped) media (Daily Show)
• News vs opinion (according to Jon Stewart)
• Shep Smith dissents
• Cal Thomas and angry black women
• O'Reilly and Beck keep it alive
• News meets views on Fox & Friends
• Fox promotes equal opportunity for female journalists
• Chris Matthews shows Stewart shows Hannity
• Fearful people tune in!
• CNN, Obama, and the anti-Christ (and viral media)
• The news-sexus lexus
• Gore's a sex-crazed poodle (expert panel)
• Al Gore and winter weather
• Shep Smith and Glenn Beck
• Harris poll results

TV News??

• Opens
• More teasers (WCNC, WCNC, WCAU)
• Consumer investigations (NBC6)
• Hard-hitting news

Unique TV distortions

• Missing women
• Pirate stories (aaaargghh matey !! )
• Online predators (NBC; Fox; stalkers)
• Cyber bullying; CNN
• Workplace murders; other violent acts;
• Satanism
• Carjacking New Orleans

(in)Famous debate moments

• Nixon and Kennedy
• Carter and Ford
• Carter and Reagan (second clip, 'there you go again')
• Mondale and Reagan
• Mondale and Reagan (the 'age issue')
• Quayle and Bensten
• Clinton and Bush, Sr.
• Bush then and later
• Bush and Kerry (town hall)
• 'Bush vs Kerry'
• Palin and Biden
• 'Palin and Biden'
• More highlights
• Obama and Clinton (good for oppo research)
• Obama and McCain ('safe and clean' nuclear power; 'clean' coal)
• Marshall McLuhan on the Carter/Ford debate