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Ridgewood NJ, a new study from Gallup and the Knight Foundation shows that a whopping 86 percent of Americans believe media outlets lean one way or another politically, with 49 percent saying there’s “a great deal” of bias while 37 percent say “a fair amount.”
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports , following the high-profile resignation of a New York Times opinion page editor, most voters are eager to find fair and balanced media coverage but think the majority of news organizations these days are politically biased.
Continue reading Only 27% of Voters Feel News Organizations Generally Remain Impartial
by Byron York | May 19, 2017, 3:21 PM
How negative was press coverage of President Trump’s first 100 days in office? Far more than that of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, or Bill Clinton, according to a new report from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
The Harvard scholars analyzed the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and the main newscasts (not talk shows) of CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC during Trump’s initial time in office. They found, to no one’s surprise, that Trump absolutely dominated news coverage in the first 100 days. And then they found that news coverage was solidly negative — 80 percent negative among those outlets studied, versus 20 percent positive.
The numbers for previous presidents: Barack Obama, 41 percent negative, 59 percent positive; George W. Bush, 57 percent negative, 43 percent positive; and Bill Clinton, 60 percent negative, 40 percent positive.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/byron-york-harvard-study-cnn-nbc-trump-coverage-93-percent-negative/article/262364
ALEX PFEIFFER
Journalists can’t seem to get their stories straight in the opening weeks of the Trump administration, whether in tweets or in articles where falsehoods have been spread almost daily.
The mistakes have not just been from newer liberal news outlets such The Huffington Post or BuzzFeed, but from legacy media like Reuters, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
What follows are several botched stories or conflicting reports since President Trump took office.
file photo by Boyd Loving
The NY Times will likely always exist in some form, but it is fading in relevance. It’s dying for a number of reasons, but mostly, it’s dying because the trend in how people consume news is rapidly changing. It’s no different to record companies and record stores managing the music business. The Times keeps trying to sell itself through online subscriptions but people simply won’t pay a cent for it. News is easily available elsewhere for free. Same deal with lesser outlets, like The Record. The other main reason is its content. The liberal bias might work on the Upper West Side, but not in Preoria. America is predominantly right-of-center, and The NYT, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and a whole host of what’s known as the mainstream media is losing market share and dying.
Here’s some fake “mainstream” news stories for you to consider:
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“The Zapruder film:” frames of video footage of JFK’s assassination were reversed, making it appear that Kennedy’s head lurched the opposite direction, spawning a million conspiracy theories about multiple gun men, the grassy knoll, etc.
“The October Surprise:” Reagan supposedly sent Bush 41 to Iran to prevent the hostages from being released until he was elected president. Bush never went to Iran, and his whereabouts on the supposed dates were very public.
“Bush 43 snorted Coke”… according to a Texas inmate whose only known encounter with Bush was when Bush refused to pardon him.
“Laura Bush had an abortion.”
“Proof Bush avoided the draft” was based on a letter publicized by Dan Rather on 60 minutes that was such an obvious forgery, TV viewers spotted fifteen proofs of forgery from their living room couches.
“Jet fuel doesn’t burn hot enough to destroy the Twin Towers” It doesn’t burn hot enough to melt steel, but it burns plenty hot enough to weaken it. Ever take metal shop, anyone?
“Mad Max Beyond Superdome” No, after Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana stadium was not filled of desperate people resorting to cannibalism.
“Blame for Katrina” The Bush administration had attempted to use federal funds to rebuild the dykes and levees in Louisiana, but was blocked by local Democrat politicians.
“Tar balls in the Gulf coast” were an entirely natural phenomenon. If they were affected at all by the oil spill disaster it was because there were fewer oil rigs to collect natural seepage, which leak far more oil every year than the oil spillage.
Most contentiously, “Project Veritas” misled America by editing footage to make it appear that Planned Parenthood sold baby parts, PP also arranged to keep child prostitution secret, NPR negotiated with reporters undercover as Islamicists, Clinton staffers coaching on how to commit vote fraud, … except, oh, yeah… Project Veritas released the entire unedited footage with the footage that had been merely edited for time, just like every news story based on recorded footage since the dawn of man. This is contentious, because I suppose it’s partly subjective whether the fact that a PP employee went in the back room to discuss a proposal to smuggle child prostitutes with her manager for several minutes amounts to exculpatory evidence; “obviously” it demonstrates some hesitance.
And some less important, but outrageous ones:
Dateline NBC demonstrated that GM minivans were prone to burn when struck in a collision, but didn’t include “if you overfill them with gas, and you stick bottle rockets where the gas is flowing out of them.”
A Food Lion was busted with old meat in the meat fridge… moments after it was put there by the network reporter who busted them.
The Washington Post accuses dozens of “right-wing” news sites and aggregators of spreading anonymous Russian-sourced fake news stories they found on the web and failed to verify … based on some anonymous probably Ukrainian-sourced fake news stories they found on the web and failed to verify.
By Mary Pilon
December 3, 2016 | 3:11pm
When I called my father back home in Oregon on a recent Sunday, he rattled off his thoughts about the election, the health of his two dogs and queries about holiday plans. But, as the child of a sports-loving house (Go, Ducks!), I was most surprised by what my dad wasn’t talking about on Sunday — football.
He’s not alone in his waning interest. This season, ratings for professional football are down 27 percent across all of the major networks: ESPN, Fox, NBC and CBS, according Forbes. The decline in the ratings underscores a bigger truth that no one wants to face: Nothing lasts forever. And that includes the popularity of professional football, which now may be experiencing the slow, inevitable crumble of a Roman-style empire.
https://nypost.com/2016/12/03/american-football-could-fall-like-the-gladiators-of-ancient-rome/
Liberals just can’t abide competing points of view
By Kelly Riddell – The Washington Times – Thursday, November 24, 2016
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
What worries me the most about fake news, isn’t that it’s fake, it’s that it’s being used by the left to try to silence opposing views.
Take for example a story reported by the Los Angeles Times that included a professor who put together a Google document of “false, misleading, clickbait-y and satirical ‘news sources’” to help people “cleanse their newsfeeds of misinformation.”
The only problem with the list, was it included real news sites of which the professor simply didn’t agree. Conservative blogs, including Red State and The Blaze, were on the list, as was more centrist, but GOP-leaning Independent Journal Review (IJR). None of those sites are fake — they often just peddle in the real news purposely not covered by the mainstream media.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/24/using-fake-news-against-opposing-views/
REVEALED: The Real Fake News List
11/19/2016
By Chris Rossini
We’ve seen the make-shift “fake news” list created by a leftist feminist professor. Well, another fake news list has been revealed and this one holds a lot more water.
This list contains the culprits who told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and lied us into multiple bogus wars. These are the news sources that told us “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” They told us that Hillary Clinton had a 98% of winning the election. They tell us in a never-ending loop that “The economy is in great shape!”
https://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/revealed-the-real-fake-news-list
Google, Facebook move to restrict ads on fake news sites
Only Liberal Media Approved News
By Julia Love and Kristina Cooke | SAN FRANCISCO
Alphabet Inc’s Google (GOOGL.O) and Facebook Inc (FB.O) on Monday announced measures aimed at halting the spread of “fake news” on the internet by targeting how some purveyors of phony content make money: advertising.
Google said it is working on a policy change to prevent websites that misrepresent content from using its AdSense advertising network, while Facebook updated its advertising policies to spell out that its ban on deceptive and misleading content applies to fake news.
The shifts comes as Google, Facebook and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) face a backlash over the role they played in the U.S. presidential election by allowing the spread of false and often malicious information that might have swayed voters toward Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The issue has provoked a fierce debate within Facebook especially, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg insisting twice in recent days that the site had no role in influencing the election.
Facebook’s steps are limited to its ad policies, and do not target fake news sites shared by users on their news feeds.
“We do not integrate or display ads in apps or sites containing content that is illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news,” Facebook said in a statement, adding that it will continue to vet publishers to ensure compliance.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-advertising-idUSKBN1392MM
By Michael Goodwin
August 21, 2016 | 5:40am
Donald Trump may or may not fix his campaign, andHillary Clinton may or may not become the first female president. But something else happening before our eyes is almost as important: the complete collapse of American journalism as we know it.
The frenzy to bury Trump is not limited to the Clinton campaign and the Obama White House. They are working hand-in-hand with what was considered the cream of the nation’s news organizations.
The shameful display of naked partisanship by the elite media is unlike anything seen in modern America.
The largest broadcast networks — CBS, NBC and ABC — and major newspapers like The New York Times and Washington Post have jettisoned all pretense of fair play. Their fierce determination to keep Trump out of the Oval Office has no precedent.
Indeed, no foreign enemy, no terror group, no native criminal gang, suffers the daily beating that Trump does. The mad mullahs of Iran, who call America the Great Satan and vow to wipe Israel off the map, are treated gently by comparison.
https://nypost.com/2016/08/21/american-journalism-is-collapsing-before-our-eyes/
By Geoffrey Dickens | August 1, 2016 | 5:36 PM EDT
Two weeks ago at the Republican National Convention (RNC) a grieving mother blasted Hillary Clinton for the debacle of the 2012 Benghazi attack. Last Thursday, at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), grieving parents gave a speech criticizing Donald Trump for his statements against Muslims.
While all the grieving parents deserve sympathy, the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) network evening and morning shows seemed to only care about the parents that showed up at the Democratic Convention. Khizr Khan and his wife Ghazla’s DNC appearance earned 55 minutes, 13 seconds of Big Three network coverage, nearly 50 times more than Pat Smith, whose RNC speech honoring her son earned just 70 seconds of airtime.
By T. BECKET ADAMS (@BECKETADAMS) • 1/13/16 2:50 PM
NBCUniversal’s about-face last year on severing ties with GOP front-runner Donald Trump came after it realized the billionaire businessman’s 2016 presidential campaign had become a legitimate phenomenon, according to network executives.
“[T]he poll numbers are astounding, and he’s everywhere,” NBC’s entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt told reporters. “He’s on every news show, every morning show, every nightly show, every cable news show.”
NBCUniversal made a big show last summer of announcing that it had cut all business ties with Trump after he said Mexico was sending degenerate drug dealers and rapists to the United States.
“At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values,” a spokesperson said at the time, explaining that it couldn’t idly stand by as the former reality TV star besmirched all illegal immigrants. “Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump.”
BY PAUL SPERRY
09/29/2015 05:06 PM ET
Did you know TV news networks pay former politicians for interviews? They do, and they pay them obscenely well. Even a few now running for the White House enjoyed secret deals, which raises a host of ethical questions.
Voters get most of their political news from cable or network TV. These outlets are supposed to keep politicians honest. Increasingly, however, they are paying officials huge sums to essentially produce news for them.
In effect, politicians have become quasi-journalists, and journalists have become quasi-campaign managers.
The latest example is GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson, whose lucrative contract with Fox News Channel was only recently disclosed as part of a Federal Election Commission filing.
According to a revised financial report filed by his campaign last month, Carson earned a whopping $492,115 in “nonemployee compensation” from Fox through November 2014, when the top-rated cable news network canceled his contract as a “contributor.”
Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: https://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-viewpoint/092915-773260-carson-santorum-huckabee-media-contracts-raise-specter-of-checkbook-journalism.htm#ixzz3nE9MxN94
By Geoffrey Dickens | July 8, 2015 | 3:18 PM EDT
What’s it going to take for the networks to start seriously reporting on the IRS scandal again? On Tuesday, Judicial Watch announced the stunning revelation that newly discovered Department of Justice and IRS documents showed there was “an October 2010 meeting between Lois Lerner, DOJ officials and the FBI to plan for the possible criminal prosecution of targeted nonprofit organizations for alleged illegal political activity.” This latest bombshell has yet to be reported on any of the Big Three (ABC, NBC, CBS) networks.
The July 7 Judicial Watch press release added: “The newly obtained records also reveal that the Obama DOJ wanted IRS employees who were going to testify to Congress to turn over documents to the DOJ before giving them to Congress. Records also detail how the Obama IRS gave the FBI 21 computer disks, containing 1.25 million pages of confidential IRS returns from 113,000 nonprofit social 501(c)(4) welfare groups – or nearly every 501(c)(4) in the United States – as part of its prosecution effort.”
