Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/14

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Subject: Re: [Leica] BD's Point and Free Speech
From: Frank Dernie <Frank.Dernie@btinternet.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 08:28:15 +0000

This may well be so BD but that could also be because you were writing 
for publications which shared your views such that disagreement on the 
way you reported something was unlikely.
The variation in one case between the Guardian (the most left wing) and 
Daily Express (the most right wing) on one story I was involved with 
was quite shocking. Neither were accurate. I work in Motor Racing, 
after a short chat with a fan I can tell which magazine they read 
because they will have the opinion one of the journalists. This is not 
serious apart from the fact that in 50 years time what was written will 
have become history and the truth will have died with the few that knew 
it. Individual's reputations depend on how "mediatique" they are. I 
know a very considerable number of individuals, who interact well with 
the press, who have reputations well above that which they deserve and 
the converse is also true. I could give dozens of tedious examples but 
my personal solution to this is that I have not read any articles about 
anything I am involved in since the mid 80s and for everything else I 
am interested in I read as many articles as I can, in all the languages 
I can understand. The net helps for this. There is also an interesting 
weekly precis magazine in the UK called "The  Week" I believe a US 
version is also published but I have not read it.
In the case of conflict there is no point in reading the press of the 
protagonists, one would not, for example, expect the US, UK or Al 
Jazira press to be too accurate on the Iraq conflict and it would 
therefore be naive to believe either side.
Frank

On Thursday, November 13, 2003, at 07:01  pm, B. D. Colen wrote:

> Interesting observation, Frank. But I can honestly say - and I stress
> honestly - that in 23 years of reporting for two major American
> newspapers, I can only think of ONE time where a story I wrote was
> altered because of an editor's or the paper's political/social agenda.
> ONE time in 23 years - and I covered allot of controversial stories and
> issues.
>
> B. D.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of
> frank.dernie@btinternet.com
> Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2003 12:21 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: RE: [Leica] BD's Point and Free Speech
>
>
> I think this is very true. Every newspaper article I have read where I
> was aware of the facts was clearly biased in the direction of the
> opinion of the journalist or the political requirements of the
> proprietor of the paper. Because of 30 years of this I do not expect to
> ever see unbiased reporting. Freedom of the press does not necessarily
> result in accurate reporting IME but it is still MUCH preferable to any
> alternative. cheers Frank
>
>>  from:    Tarek Charara <tarek.charara@pix-that-stimulate.com>
>>  date:    Thu, 13 Nov 2003 16:36:26
>>  to:      leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
>>  subject: RE: [Leica] BD's Point and Free Speech
>>
>> De B. D. Colen <bdcolen@earthlink.net>, le jeudi 13 novembre 2003 ?
>> 09:53 GMT :
>>
>>> Marc, the role of the press it not to "protest," but to report.
>>
>> B.D.,
>> the press also "transmits" information that was not verified by their
> staff. Aren't you tired of the crap that is given by government
> officials who request to remain anonymous. The ratio of information 
> that
> comes from "anonymous" vs. verified information must be 70 to 30. I'm
> guessing, of course. When I read the NYT or Time Magazine, I sometimes
> feel that the information given is more or less biased. Here (in 
> France)
> the situation is that articles can be taken out of a magazine because 
> an
> advertiser does not agree with it. I've seen it happen. I've heard 
> (this
> is a documentalist friend at a major TV station reporting) that
> information has been strongly altered to suit management's political
> views.
>>
>> Freedom of press? Yes, the press is free to inform, but that doesn't
>> mean that the information is correct or unbiased or even true.
>>
>> Tarek
>>
>> Tarek Charara
>> -------------
>> site: http://www.pix-that-stimulate.com
>> expo: http://www.orients-unis.net
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