August 26, 2004

A honest reflection on media objectivity...

I was really touched by Mike Borrelli's thoughtful post on the reality that is--media bias--and its effect on the now disoriented individual seeking "the facts" on just about any global event. It is a really well thought out and balanced portrayal of the dilemma the want-to-be-informed populace face everyday.

The only correction I would make, if you could call it one, really, would be his classification of organizations like Amnesty International as "objective"...though hey really are, in principle.

However, if you analyze closely the actions they criticize, there is an appearance of actually taking a "position" on certain things. For example, AI has employed campaigns to prevent the use of certain military arsenal (namely, bombs dropped from aircraft) in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars due to their imprecise nature (ie: their tendency to claim innocents). That, in essence, can be seen as making a statement against an often integral part of a military operation. Realistically, all human rights organizations would rather have no wars at all, if they had their say (but then again, who wouldn't?) Yet, in the end, we need organizations like AI, and HRW and the countless other NGO watchdog groups to report and bring to light both the unintentional errors/mistakes AND the atrocities that occur in violent conflict.

Good show, Mike.

Posted by Kyer at August 26, 2004 01:33 AM
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