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Sunday, December 23, 2007

There Are Several Ways to Lie; One Way is to Say Nothing.

Another way to lie is to change the subject. That's among the most often used ways the media lies to us. Now we have a study, believe it or not, done by the Pew Research Center (not a conservative in sight).

Via Captain Ed:

Pew Research Center issued a stinging indictment on Wednesday regarding the press coverage of Iraq this year, one that shows a subtle but clear editorial bias. The news media gave plenty of attention to the war in Iraq when they could show it as a failing enterprise, with half of all their coverage focusing on anecdotal stories of violence. When the success of General David Petraeus made even that coverage difficult, media outlets simply stopped reporting on Iraq (via Wake Up America)

Editorial bias comes in several guises. Stories written with a particular slant only comprise a part of how news gets manipulated for political agendas. The most insidious form is when media outlets simply don't report on stories at all.

That has become apparent with Iraq. As the violence receded, one might have expected journalists to have more flexibility in reporting from the communities rather than from the understandable impulse to remain secure in the Green Zone. Instead, most did neither.

In May, nearly 18% of all stories reported involved Iraq. In July, it had fallen by two-thirds, even though Harry Reid insisted on an all-nighter over war strategy. By September, that fell to slightly over 4% -- in the same month when Petraeus testified before Congress.

Silence is not always golden. The use of the editorial pen seems clear and damning. As the US began to succeed, the media stopped reporting it.


Note that the media rarely gave us "straight facts"

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