Having been associated with newspapering for over 50 years I perhaps am more drawn to news reports, spoken and written, than many others.
I’ve neither read nor listened with interest in anything but what I see and hear. No searching for flaws or innuendos. No thoughts of partisan reporting of political, environmental, religious or whatever preferences the reporters might have, crossed my mind.
Just as I believe over 95 percent of the people are honest, I believed an even greater number of news reports were unbiased.
I have never confused news reporting with editorial and column writing with news reporting. Columns and editorials are swaying pieces. Whether it’s pushing a candidate, parks, millages or sidewalk repairs, such offerings are meant to influence.
Talk radio is predominately conservative, thus the Republican slants. Radio’s Rush Limbaugh and tv’s Bill O’Reilly are often referred to in the same sentence.
I believe few people are convinced Fox News is ‘fair and balanced,? and ‘We report, you decide.?
Of course, there are representatives with the liberal, Democratic viewpoints. National Public Radio often espouses that view, as do various individuals.
Most of us know that and can click them on or off as we choose.
I know all this now. I haven’t believed it forever. The comments of Walter Cronkite following his retirement both surprised me and awakened me. The man was THE television news presenter for years.
Then, away from the camera, he boasted of being a Democrat. That sent me into my memory bank trying to recall how he slanted his reporting to favor his party.
It also changed my listening habits toward news readers on the tube, and my reading habits of headline writing and straight news reporting. I also started reflecting on the ownerships of these media, wondering if they were dictating contents.
And, I began diverting my attention to what was being read on tv to facial expressions and voice inflections.
Of course, this has killed my interest in watching tv reporting. It’s getting so I listen without watching.
A survey of men shows they pay a lot more attention to news being reported by non-made-up women reporters than attractive women with sensual lips. Men tend to watch the mouths and not hear what comes out of them.
In a way that’s where I am with my news reception. I’m concentrating so much on finding flaws I don’t hear the news.
Tom Brokaw is not retiring too soon. I decided he was a slanter some years ago. Even longer ago I hung that title on Dan Rather.
I really want to get back to actually hearing what is being said and written. But, my hope is past dwindling. I’ve just about concluded that the ‘honest? percentage mentioned earlier in this column has been reversed to it being 95 percent of what I see and hear is not honest on the air.