[antimedia] antimedia: My friend neo-neocon tipped me off....

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by antimedia:
My friend neo-neocon tipped me off....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1165553054.shtml


   ....to a book [1]that I simply must read, written by a professor
   communication.

     Jim A. Kuypers, assistant professor of communication in the College
     of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, reveals a
     disturbing world of media bias in his new book Bush's War: Media
     Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age (Rowman &
     Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2006).
     Convincingly and without resorting to partisan politics, Kuypers
     strongly illustrates in eight chapters âhow the press failed
     America in its coverage on the War on Terror.â In each comparison,
     Kuypers âdetected massive bias on the part of the press.â In fact,
     Kuypers calls the mainstream news media an âanti-democratic
     institutionâ in the conclusion.
     âWhat has essentially happened since 9/11 has been that Bush has
     repeated the same themes, and framed those themes the same whenever
     discussing the War on Terror,â said Kuypers, who specializes in
     political communication and rhetoric. âImmediately following 9/11,
     the mainstream news media (represented by CBS, ABC, NBC, USA Today,
     New York Times, and Washington Post) did echo Bush, but within
     eight weeks it began to intentionally ignore certain information
     the president was sharing, and instead reframed the president's
     themes or intentionally introduced new material to shift the
     focus.â
     This goes beyond reporting alternate points of view. âIn short,â
     Kupyers explained, âif someone were relying only on the mainstream
     media for information, they would have no idea what the president
     actually said. It was as if the press were reporting on a different
     speech.â

   Another professor, commenting on the book, called it "provocative in
   the best sense of the word".
   Neo's [2]own comments are provocative as well.

     In my earlier post today, I spoke of the need for leadership. Part
     of leadership involves rhetoric, and Bush is obviously no
     Churchill. But could even Churchill get his message across in the
     face of such a concerted effort by his own press to distort it?

   I personally believe that the President must become more adversarial
   with the press. Take them on and call them out when they lie about
   what he has said or about what they have reported. (The language must
   be couched correctly, but it can be done.)
   The resultant "war of words" would get more of his message out while
   planting questions both about the media's version of the facts and
   their motivations for lying.

References

   1. http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2006&itemno=644
   2. http://neo-neocon.blogspot.com/2006/12/freedom-of-speeches-press-takes-some.html