The Truth @ The Spin Factor

Analysis: Who can you trust in the lamestream and newstream media?

First, as psychologists point out, everyone is biased.* Second, some news organizations try to be objective, while others push an agenda. This analysis is based on legitimate research and logical reasoning. Instead of pretending to be immune to bias, we’ll come out and say it; We support Ron Paul, and detest FOX News’ spin.**

Sources Ranked by Reliability – From most reliable to least reliable

General - Primary sources > Online content with direct references to primary sources > News organizations subject to a wide international audience > U.S. news organizations > Word of mouth, Dogmatic advocacy groups > Online content with no references to primary sources > Tabloids.

International – The Economist, al-Jazeera > CNN International, Time, Newsweek > BBC World

U.S. – NPR/PBS > MSNBC > CNN > ABC News > FOX News

Online, Blogs, Advocacy – Lew Rockwell > Media Matters, Huffington Post, Cato Institute > Drudge Report > Hot Air, The Conservative Voice > NewsMax.com

Special Note – Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report tend to be more reliable than U.S. network news if you understand satire. The O’Reilly Factor, widely known for intentional misinformation, ranks lowest, but higher than tabloids.

Political or Ideological Slant

International

The Economist – Free Market
Al Jazeera – Humanitarian, wide focus on Middle East
CNN International – Slight left of center and mixed
Time, Newsweek – Mixed
BBC World – Slight left of center

U.S.

NPR/PBS – Neutral
MSNBC – Mixed commentary, centrist
CNN – Left of center, slightly populist
ABC News – Liberal to centrist
FOX News – Neoconservative

Online, Blogs, Advocacy

Lew Rockwell – Free Market, libertarian, focus on Ron Paul
Media Matters – Progressive, focus on media misinformation
Huffington Post – Liberal to centrist
Cato Institute – Libertarian, slightly conservative
Drudge Report – Mixed
Hot Air – Neoconservative
The Conservative Voice – Neoconservative, slightly conservative
NewsMax.com – Conservative

Analysis

Who is most likely to be misinformed?

Variations in Misperceptions According to Source of News
The extent of Americans’ misperceptions vary significantly depending on their source of news. Those who receive most of their news from Fox News are more likely than average to have misperceptions. Those who receive most of their news from NPR or PBS are less likely to have misperceptions. These variations cannot simply be explained as a result of differences in the demographic characteristics of each audience, because these variations can also be found when comparing the demographic subgroups of each audience.

Excerpt from The PIPA/Knowledge Networks Poll - Misperceptions, The Media And the Iraq War

What about political alignment, who is better informed, democrats or republicans?
Currently (2007), democrats are better informed, but this is not related to political alignment, it turns out supporting the incumbent president affects republicans negatively. The opposite is expected in the case of a democratic president in office. See PIPA.

Who is most informed?

Regular viewers of the Daily Show / Colbert Report had the highest knowledge levels according to an April 15th report by the Pew Research Center. See image on right margin.

What kind of disinformation is published/broadcast?

These are some examples of disinformation published or broadcast by the lowest rated organizations

FOX News: Falsely claimed Barack Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school in Indonesia. Obama lived in Indonesia but CNN debunked the claim that Obama attended a madrassa by visiting Obama’s old school in Indonesia. It turns out FNC simply borrowed the story from an “Insight Magazine” but never bothered to confirm the story. FNC also published rumors that the Clinton campaign was responsible for leaking this information.

ABC News: Deleted user comments and hid the results of online polls when Ron Paul won them by a landslide. Also misrepresented Ron Paul supporters at the GOP Iowa debate. The slideshow showed disproportionate numbers of supporters that did not reflect reality – several exciting pictures showing Mitt Romney supporters and one gloomy picture with a lone Ron Paul supporter under an umbrella.

The Conservative Voice: Often publishes misleading commentary not backed by sources.

NewsMax.com: Publishes articles backed by fabricated statistics (see Heather McDonald, ).

“In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide target illegals” and “[u]p to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants in Los Angeles (17,000) are for illegals.” These statistics appeared in an article by Heather Mac Donald on CIS’s website and have since been challenged by the Los Angeles Times and conservative columnist Linda Chavez. The Times reported, “One LAPD officer cited the same factoid in the National Review earlier this year, saying that it’s specific to ‘the first half of 2004′. But Jane Robison, press secretary for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, told us that the D.A. does not keep track of this number; a representative with Detective Headquarters said the same.”

Excerpted from Colorado Media Matters.

What can I do to stay better informed?

When the incumbent president is a member of your political party, you are more likely to be misinformed. Find neutral sources and healthily question the president’s actions. Follow NPR/PBS and NBC broadcasts, as their regular audience is less likely to have misconceptions about the current state of affairs. Watch global news networks that cater to a wide audience and read comments posted by foreigners. If you speak another language read foreign newspapers; if not, there are several foreign publications that are published in English. Foreign media and commentary can provide insight into censored or ignored information, as well as world opinion on the United States.

Recommended Sources and Further Reading

The PIPA/Knowledge Networks Poll
Public Knowledge of Current Affairs Little Changed by News and Information Revolutions
WorldPublicOpinion.org
PIPA.org

Primary Source
Cognitive bias
Yellow Journalism

*Nevertheless, bias can be reduced by acknowledging it exists and isolating it’s source.

**We encourage news organizations to be transparent about their influences. MSNBC commentators tend to acknowledge their bias; and we respect them for that. Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson often fall into this category.

NOTE: This article is constantly updated as new information is made available. Please, email us if there is a notable news source we may have missed.

August 12th, 2007 Posted by eaglescout | Truth | 4 comments