1)Brit Humes show is not a news program but a news discussion program: the televised equivalent of the op-ed page. Points deducted.
2)Brit Humes remarks can not be considered to be representative of the Fox News department or the network as a whole. Points deducted.
3)Brit Hume has only visited the deepest part of the ocean once, for twenty minutes.
It is worth noting that Brits comments as the host are far more indicative of personal bias than likely any comments made on NPR. He starts off with democrats trying to make themselves a target of a comment aimed at liberals like moveon.org. He then tries to place moveon.org at the heart of the democratic party, making the democrats the target of the remark.
I touched on this earlier. While I do not see overt bias at NPR, there is the possibility of more subtle effects that it is very difficult to quantify. These are the things more likely to be overlooked even by people attempting to mitigate the effects of their own bias. As to the comment on the order things are presented, we know that this does not happen all the time at least, as Bricker’s story related the opposite.
I disagree. While subtleties may remain, I believe it is quite possible to ameliorate the effects of personal bias. I like to think of it in terms of how I act when intoxicated. First, I honestly recognize that I am intoxicated. This is particularly difficult for most people, just as the recognition of their own bias is. Second, I ask myself, “What would I do/how would I act in this situation if I was completely sober?” Though my interpretation of appropriate behavior is clouded, it is not actually as hard as you may think to seperate your own feelings from the question and realize that, “No, it is not in fact a good idea to pee in the middle of the road.” The end effect is that people assume I a sober until I fall over. While someone like Hume has already fallen over and is puking into the gutter, a reasonable person should be able to control themselves if they put forth the effort.
Putting forth this effort is difficult as you are actively trying to give balanced credibility to an opinion you believe is flawed. But, if you have respect for the other side of the issue and are humble and realistic enough to realize it is entirely possible that you yourself are wrong, it can be done.
Well, OK, since it’s been bumped *and *discussed maybe I should respond.
I’m not in for anything; I’ve been restoring an old house in Calvert, Texas, and when I’m up there working on it I tend to stay with my folks in Marlin. The local cable company decided about a year ago to no longer carry CNN because they were charging too much, or so I was told. Instead of offering their customers an upgrade option that would include CNN, they just removed it from their lineup. Curiously enough, this occurred shortly after Bush’s reelection - draw your own conclusions.
So anyway, since my Mom’s a news junkie, we’ve been reduced to watching Fox, sometimes it seems 24 hours a day.