**PBS, politics, current events … potential for bias? **
Not Liberal bias; just plain old bias in favor of Democrats …
The other day I looked at the schedule of my local PBS affiliate for the current events or political programming. The names that were prominent were Tavis Smiley, Charley Rose and Bill Moyer. Then I went to the wiki on the PBS News Hour and found that “The program’s senior correspondents are Gwen Ifill, Ray Suarez, Margaret Warner, Jeffrey Brown, and Judy Woodruff.”
I’m somewhat familiar with all except Brown and I wondered whether any of them regularly pull the R lever rather than the D. I don’t think so.
Am I missing any shows or people that might suggest that PBS really does provide “strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature” as it was designed to do?
I’m sure there are some R’s among the Nightly Business Report people and I used to watch McLaughlin Group which was always pretty balanced.
[End of OP started in Elections]
Was trying to steer it away from “liberal bias” a bad move?
Would IMHO have been better??
Did the Mod who move it to the Pit as soon as she could bother to read the last few sentences?
It didn’t belong in Elections, which is where you put it. I guess it was a judgement call as whether it should be moved to IMHO, GD or The Pit. It looked like it might be headed for the Pit eventually, so I don’t see the problem. Why don’t you see if you can get it moved to GD or else start a similar thread there for debate. Don’t poison the well, and maybe it’ll stay there.
It’s impossible that you could have thought that accusing PBS of all-pervasive leftist bias was a commentary on the election. Any mod would have to move it upon reading it.
Where it was to be moved to was a judgment call. Just get it out of Elections.
John (if I may), please point out the poison in the well for me. My opinion may have been obvious…and for most it would have been clear as soon as reading the username… but if that equates to poisoning the well and being thrown into the Pit then I think a hard look needs to be given to alot of threads.
As for the Forum, seems like a Democrat vs Republican thread couldn’t be more political. Especially since there is no correct answer nor any way to prove anything, it could have gone somewhere else…but not to the Pit.
That it was headed for the Pit anyway is more a function of the responses and there are other ways to handle those kinds of responses…if a Mod realy wanted to.
I’d welcome your assistance in wording an OP that looks at the faces of PBS and asks for honest opinions on their views or likely political affilitations. I referenced programming other than the news in my OP as well. Again, nothing can be proven but that isn’t a requirement for any thread other than GQ as far as I know.
You were posting disingenuously and passive-aggressively. You clearly believe PBS is biased towards Democrats. Ok. But your post was worded to protect yourself from criticism of that belief.
This is a made up example (and intentionally not related to media bias), but compare these:
It’s clear that both people believe the same thing (hate crocs and judge people who wear them), but at least the first person has the honesty to state he does. The second person weasels around, attributing his positions to a vague, undefined “some people” so he can be all, "hey, man! I didn’t say I feel that way! *. Uh huh.
Elections is supposed to be about … Elections. While the political leanings of the staff at PBS and perhaps a bit of imbalance in their coverage is a political topic, it is not about elections. Ergo, it should have been moved.
I’m not sure why it was moved to the Pit. That post seems like it should have had a home in GD. The only reason I can surmise for the move to the Pit seems to be, judging from the responses in this thread, a reaction to you. shrug
There’s not a thing wrong with his original post. So what if he has an opinion? That’s allowed, even in GD. He doesn’t just say “Fucking PBS is fucking biased against Republicans”, he lists names of people and asks about their political leanings and affiliations.
Of course he’s allowed to have an opinion. I didn’t say otherwise. I said it’s disingenuous to post your opinion as if it wasn’t your own and you wanted to get other points of view to form your own stance.
The thread in question is perhaps not an especially egregious example, but it is one. The OP has a history of pulling this bullshit (look for his thread “asking” why Obama hasn’t released his college transcripts).
This is what the Elections forum is for: For discussion of elections and electoral politics, including strategy and tactics, political parties, individual races, political news, and politicians and public figures.
I wasn’t trying to be disingenous at all… I was trying not to poison the well.
Your example re his transcripts and other college records was also another attempt to get factual answers without poisoning the well.
As well poisoning go, yes, we’ve had much worse. But it was well poisoning nonetheless. The fact that you couldn’t even see it at the time should give you pause if you don’t want to be seen as simply a partisan poster on the right. Not that we don’t have an over-abundance of those on the left here.
I moved the thread in question and I saw it as a passive-aggressive mini-rant.
It was not appropriate in Elections.
Could it have been moved to Great Debates or IMHO? Maybe, but since the query was really a rant in query’s clothing it was likewise not appropriate in those areas either.
That left the Pit. That’s where rants should go.
Since this was an inflammatory post on its face due to the rant/biased nature of the query, I felt it was probably going to go to the Pit anyway.
So that’s where I put it. Prematurely preemptive? Perhaps.
If the thread is judged not sufficiently Pitworthy it would be moved someplace else that is more appropriate. I see it’s still in the Pit.
Not yet… I’ll let the Mod figure it out herself… or another Mod if they want. I’ve seen them come to the aid of their bothers and sisters before. Just not in this case…funny.
If you have an opinion on the OP though feel free.