Here it is, your moment of Zen

It is undeniable that all news stations today are bias in some way or another. Think about who owns these stations. They are not owned by non-profit organizations whose only job it is to provide you with accurate and unbiased opinions. News stations and programs are owned by people and those people want their views to be reflected in what they produce. Take for example Fox News. This station is owned, like many things, by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch has been known to be a supporter of the Iraq War. As such this was reflected in most of the coverage of the war. Just after the war started The New York Times observed "The war has illuminated anew the exceptional power in the hands of Murdoch, 72, the chairman of News Corp… In the last several months, the editorial policies of almost all his English-language news organizations have hewn very closely to Murdoch's own stridently hawkish political views, making his voice among the loudest in the Anglophone world in the international debate over the American-led war with Iraq."

To compare two news events I researched the Indonesian Tsunami of 2004. The Fox News article can be found at Fox News and the CNN story can be found at CNN News

Right away in the Fox news article the journalist is concerned mostly with the dollar amount assigned to the damage and the loss of American lives. Not that the loss of American lives is unimportant. However, the CNN article gives an overview of how it happened, how many people died and from what countries they were from and many other points like the recovery process and the after effects. While both articles make valid points, they tend to show bias. Fox news has a more ethnocentric focus, whereas CNN presents a more global view of the incident.

In Rachel Smolkin's article, What the Mainstream Media Can Learn From Jon Stewart, she observes the differences between Mainstream media and The Daily Show on Comedy Central. It is true that because The Daily Show is presented as comedy and not a strictly news show, Stewart has much more leeway than traditional newscasters. He is able to present news more truthfully and less skewed or biased because it will be more accepted because it is in a comedic setting. Traditional newscasters do not feel the freedom of opinion to state the truth as they see it or the truth period. They are overseen by a larger corporation with their own goals and agendas.

The Daily Shows take on the story of the Tsunami in a different way

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
God Blesses
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Stewart observes the selfishness of some people in the media focusing the attention on them while the people of Indonesia are the one suffering.


Rhetorica.netgives an definition of media bias and the different types that exist. The site lists Commercial bias, Temporal bias, Visual bias, Bad news bias, Narrative bias, Status Quo bias, Fairness bias, Expedience bias and Glory bias. With all these different types of bias out there it is impossible for a person or a network to remain totally unbiased. A person can try and most likely will, but corporations are who rules the tv stations.

In terms of comedic news programs having more truth or more unbiased opinions, yes that may be true. Comedy has always been given a certain amount of leeway to mock and satire subjects of immediate and political importance. Take for instance the long running sketch show Saturday Night Live. This show has been satirizing political prominent figures and events.

The day when the media is unbiased may never come. On the bright site we will always have those like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to make us laugh at the obvious.