Is the media unethical? If so, does it bother you?

The quotations come back redacted, stripped of colorful metaphors, colloquial language and anything even mildly provocative.

They are sent by e-mail from the Obama headquarters in Chicago to reporters who have interviewed campaign officials under one major condition: the press office has veto power over what statements can be quoted and attributed by name.

Most reporters, desperate to pick the brains of the presidents top strategists, grudgingly agree. After the interviews, they review their notes, check their tape recorders and send in the juiciest sound bites for review.

The verdict from the campaign an operation that prides itself on staying consistently on script is often no, Barack Obama does not approve this message.

The push and pull over what is on the record is one of journalisms perennial battles. But those negotiations typically took place case by case, free from the red pens of press minders. Now, with a millisecond Twitter news cycle and an unforgiving, gaffe-obsessed media culture, politicians and their advisers are routinely demanding that reporters allow them final editing power over any published quotations.

Here is the link to the New York Times article,

Latest Word on the Trail? I Take it Back

Does this bother you? I think one writer summed it up for me when he said,

What it means is this: When Americans read these reports whether in newspapers, wire services or on the Internet they are not really reading news stories at all. They are reading approved, pre-packaged press releases from the government and politicians. But, even worse, they are not labeled as such. They are labeled as actual news.

What say you OT?

i really never listen to the media,they don't tell you everything and they twist the story 95% of the time

i really never listen to the media,they don't tell you everything and they twist the story 95% of the time

almasdeathchild

Yes the media is unethical and lies but thankfully there is more than one side out there to help balance the BS out.DaBrainz

For news on TV, I turn to Canadian TV stations nearby and BBC. Are they unethical too? Beats me. I trust them more than US-based ones.

Of course it is. It is about the money. I use Al-Jazeera, no way I'm going back to American news.

They're too ethical and it bothers me.

[QUOTE="DaBrainz"]Yes the media is unethical and lies but thankfully there is more than one side out there to help balance the BS out.Ravensmash

i really never listen to the media,they don't tell you everything and they twist the story 95% of the time

almasdeathchild

This basically and I hate the way they approach things.

Objectivity is impossible, every news source has an agenda whether we like it or not, but then our own bias generally decide which version of the news we like to hear, so we are equally to blame.

There will always be an output that is in keeping with your own interests and that's likely to be the one that attracts you - sure the media regularly presents ill informed conjecture as fact, but if you had a news source that simply said 'something might have happened here, maybe, but we don't really know' you'd only be enraged by their incompetence. It would just become blindingly obvious that we're all as confused and lost as one another - and who wants that?

Sensationalisation is a different thing all together, that is unethical, because often we are talking about very serious matters and someone has decided that the story isn't interesting enough so a Hollywood sheen has been applied - like information airbrushing, it is a misinformation, but not misinformed.

Yes. The end is nigh.

For news on TV, I turn to Canadian TV stations nearby and BBC. Are they unethical too? Beats me. I trust them more than US-based ones.

jun_aka_pekto

Yes the media is unethical. And no it does not bother me because I don't watch/listen to it. The media's only power come from the people who pay attention.