Bill Maxwell, a Times columnist and a journalism professor, was someone I respected and I eagerly anticipated his columns. Now he has written an absurd column about media bias against Hillary Clinton which is itself biased and lacks any kind of back and forth or possible ways of looking at things. He sites several studies and says that his own research showed that positive front page stories about Hillary were few compaired to those about Obama.
This story is a badly done hit job for Hillary.
If you do not believe me, go back and reread your newspapers and magazines. Order transcripts of your network nightly news and read them. I guarantee that you will hear a lot of Hillary bashing and a whole lot Obama serenading.
So his premise is that the number of positive front page stories must be the same each month or it shows media bias. How are journalists supposed to manage that? Make up stories?
Initially the media was busy finding out who Obama was. They were reporting shock at the size of the crowds he was getting and the enthusiasm he was generating. Meanwhile, Hillary's campaign was showing how completely inept they were & Bill was busy sticking his foot in his mouth. Those were legitimate stories. What story would Maxwell have liked them to write about Hillary? What was going on at that time that could have generated a good front page story for her?
When I conducted my own analysis, I found that real or perceived bad news about Clinton earned front-page placement more often than for Obama. Rarely have I seen a story about Obama's influence-peddling pal from Chicago, Tony Rezko, on the front page. Nor have I seen much on the front page about Obama's linguistic sleight of hand with NAFTA and the Canadians.
Oh, Maxwell wanted the reporters to write about Obama - Rezko non story and the wink wink to the Canadians about NAFTA false story. And this is a journalism professor!
Maxwell then asks if he is making a mountain out of a molehill and concluded that no he isn't. That our democracy depends upon the Fourth Estate to inform the voters about important issues. Well, yes, I completely agree with that. However, we expect the Fourth Estate to dig into the truthfullness of stories, not spew the spin of one side in an attempt to affect voters!
I am so disappointed in Mr. Maxwell. While a few times I didn't agree with him, I had thought he was objective and measured and always felt his point of view was worth considering.