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Contributors
Hugh Hewitt - Principal Contributor
Mr.
Hewitt is senior member of theOneRepublic & CaliforniaRepublic.org
editorial board. [go to Hewitt index]
 Why
The Old
Media Isn't Trusted
Can you spell "bias"…
[Hugh Hewitt] 12/30/04
This past
Sunday, the Washington Post ran a front-page story
by reporter Michael Powell on a controversy that had split
the school board in Dover, Pa. The Board had adopted a resolution
on how evolutionary theory was to be taught that included a
mandate that the gaps in the theory be taught as well as plausible
explanations for those gaps, including "intelligent design" theory.
It didn't
take long for me to discover that the Powell article was horribly
reported and written. Basic facts – such as the size of
the school board in question, and how many members had actually
resigned from it – were omitted from the narrative. The
individuals selected for quotation provided edgy, colorful
stuff, and no mention of the
board's formal statement on the matter was made at
all.
So, I
blogged extensively about the article's shortcomings,
and then began a hunt for background on the reporter. Did
he have an ax to grind, I wondered?
I have a
new book out and available from Amazon: "Blog:
Understanding the Information Reformation and How It Is Changing
Your World." My hunt for background on Powell was one aspect
of the new world we are living in. Journalists can no longer
stage hit-and-run attacks and expect to leave the scene quietly
with no accountability. I suspected Powell of lousy reporting,
and I wanted to know where he was coming from.
What I discovered
wasn't much. There's very little bio on the Web about
Powell, but I did find one thing that led me to another, the
combination of which raises a huge red flag.
Michael Powell,
before he became a reporter, had been a "tenants advocate." He
discussed this background in an e-mail exchange that was
available through Google.
There's
nothing inherently wrong or right about being a "tenants advocate," though
it suggests a left-of-center political ideology, and it might
even be good training for journalism.
But I also
found a
July 2004 article in the Washington Post by Mr. Powell on
the subject of immigrant tenants' battles with landlords
in post-9/11 New York City. Nowhere did the article disclose
Mr. Powell's past advocacy on behalf of tenants in similar
situations.
And that
struck me as wrong. No lawyer or government official could
advocate on a particular issue in which he or she had been
intimately involved without disclosing that past association.
The disclosure allows the audience to understand that the advocate-reporter
might be bringing considerable bias to the table.
This discovery,
coupled with the lousy reporting on the intelligent-design
piece, confirmed to me that Michael Powell and the Washington
Post are not to be trusted on matters in which ideology
have a large role. They don't show their cards – they
don't tell the readers everything the readers deserve to
know.
This is all
of the Big Media's problem as 2005 opens: They aren't
trusted. And with good reason. It will take a long time for
them to get that trust back. tOR
§
theOneReublic Principal
Contributor Hugh Hewitt is an author, television commentator
and syndicated talk-show host of the Salem Radio Network's Hugh
Hewitt Show, heard in over 40 markets around the country.
He blogs regularly at HughHewitt.com and
he frequently contributes opinion pieces to the Weekly
Standard.
If It's Not
Close,
They Can't Cheat
by Hugh Hewitt
|
In,
But Not Of
by Hugh Hewitt
|
The
Embarrassed Beliver
by Hugh Hewitt
|
Searching
for God in America
by Hugh Hewitt
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