Virginia Postrel, in today's New York Times:
But what exactly makes a story a lemon? Beyond getting the facts straight, good journalism is not as easy to define as a car's accident or repair rate.Some people say they want "just the facts," and fault reporters for introducing too much analysis. Others complain that stories do just the opposite, treating all sides in a conflict as equally valid. The news-buying public seems to want contradictory things.
But one person's contradiction is another's market niche. Those differences help answer an economic puzzle: if bias is a product flaw, why does it not behave like auto repair rates, declining under competitive pressure?
[...]
In a competitive news market, [...] producers can use bias to differentiate their products and stave off price competition. Bias increases consumer loyalty.Reporters who firmly believe themselves to be disinterested observers may further this strategy if they share their audience's assumptions about how the world works and, hence, how to interpret particular facts.
[...]
But all the information is out there. Indeed, a wide-ranging reader would learn more from the two differently biased reports than from the raw unemployment figures.
I don't read news for the facts alone, I'm looking for analysis. It's impossible to analyze the events of the world without injecting personal biases. I would like to know the perspective and philosophy of the person reporting, and I want to hear the news from a variety of perspectives. As Postrel notes, I'll be better informed for it.
What I don't want is a monolith, even with the best of intentions.
Posted by Walter at May 20, 2005 05:49 PM