Media Bias
Author Andrew Sullivan was on 60 Minutes a few years ago and said, “No one ever changed their mind because they were called stupid.” I couldn’t agree more. The other day I wrote about media bias, so-called fake news, and our polarized environment. Here’s more.
I was a journalist at two small newspapers for nine years before joining Corporate America. Over 25 years, I dealt with journalists at numerous media outlets: national, international, local, business, consumer, and trade publications. There were a lot of stories we didn’t love. But not liking the facts didn’t make a story fake. A few were wildly off base, either because the reporter wasn’t very good or because we didn’t do a good job telling our story (corporate handcuffs and jargon almost always gets in the way of a good story). Most stories were directionally correct. And most reporters were willing to fix corrections.
Today, the media industry faces a crisis of confidence and there are many reasons. If you’re old enough to draw from your 401(k) you’ll remember when the news came from a handful of TV channels and a print newspaper you found on your porch or your shrubs. Today, TV is peppered with 24-hour news channels that hire as many talking heads as possible to fill the time. There’s only so much news to report so opinion – with lots of bias – has creeped into the platform. News/opinion/bias are all over satellite radio, blogs, podcasts, and of course social media. And the downstream effect on print media, as it now exists, is to be more provocative and fill the pages with click bait. Some of it is a smidgeon of truth smothered in speculation.
In short, everyone today is a journalist. And many don’t know how. For many of us, separating fact from fiction is difficult.
Among my favorite websites is AllSides, an organization committed to unearthing solutions to media bias. John Gable, co-founder and CEO of AllSides, recently visited Indianapolis to talk about media literacy (thank you Sagamore Institute)! One of their initiatives is Allsides Talks which brings people from different perspectives together for dialogue. They facilitate conversations so people can participate in conversations for better understanding across political divides. The follow up rate is strong: people want to continue the conversations once they learn we have more in common than not, regardless of how we vote.
We have many bridges to divide and being willing to talk to one another is imperative. We won’t always agree – nor need we – but we can significantly bring down the temperature.