Media Matters: 18% say press "fair"

According to this poll which also says that around 1 in 3 people consider the media to be accurate. This presents a rather big problem for a media industry thats shedding profits and employees at a record rate.

To get a picture of the problem from a local perspective I offer up two examples of shoddy, biased, reporting found in today's ChronBlog.

1. Today's Move It! Column by Carolyn Feibel. As first mentioned by Kevin Whited this type of "reporting" is commonplace in ChronBlog. Not only is the Citizen's Transportation Coalition constantly provided a platform for their views, but often those views are presented without challenge. Missing from the local transportation debate, in the media, are the voices of groups such as the Houston Property Rights Association or Paul Magaziner's Corridor's United. There are several groups out there who support the expansion of the Grand Parkway and oppose MetroRail. Some of them have valid reasons for doing so. Failure to present all sides of the debate is the great failure of ChronBlog, especially on transportation.

2. Serving up nutritional advice for Houston Schools by Jennifer Radcliffe on the Chron's "School Zone" blog. Granted, the standard for Blog reporting is a little bit more informal than the standard for a full-on newspaper report. There are some blogs, mostly independent, or Chron.commons reader blogs, in the Houston blogosphere with seemingly no standards for reporting truthfully, or correcting errors if printed. That being said the information in this blog totally excludes any dissenting voices in the issue of HISD nutrtition in favor of a relatively small group who's taken it on themselves to push for local, organic foods in schools, despite the fact that there's increasing evidence they are no more healthy than traditionally processed foods. What locally grown organics are, is more expensive. Yet, in the story, there's nothing mentioned that this might not be a universally accepted idea.

Here at Harris County Almanac we are always opinionated, but make every effort to be fair to those opinions with wich we disagree, providing them with a full airing. While the Lose an Eye era of my personal blogging career is over, you can expect to still find media watchdogging here, on Harris County Almanac, in the form of occasional op-ed pieces. My goal is not to take a political side, but to hopefully expand the debate.

It is important to note that not all posts on the Almanac are going to povide an open forum for debate. My goal with this project is not to engage the reader (as it was with LaE) but to expound further on issues that interest me such as media fairness, accruacy, etc. Because of this comments will be moderated, and anonymous comments will not be allowed. If you want your post to stand, put your name on it. Even if you were deleted at LaE the odds are, if you're topical, your comment will make it through the moderation process. One thing I'm not going to do here is get into an online pissing match. This is not about "media bias" it's about media fairness and accuracy, areas that I feel are truly what is leading to the declines in readership, and what people really are pointing to when they bring up bias. I can provide you with a Million anecdotal pieces of evidence why the media is/is not biased. I have no desire to broach that subject here.

Because the media is expanding I will also include blogs, and independent, online-based media sources in our conversation as well, with the notable exception of partisan blogs, which I feel are more house organs than legitimate sources of information.

Expect posts here to occur sporadically, because they'll show up whenever I find an article that suits me, or when I find examples of stories written with fairness towards all sides.

We're often told that without an independent media we cannot have a thriving democracy. This mantra has been forced down our throats by, well, the media, for many years now. The problem, in my mind, is that we're already in a place where there's no quality independent journalism taking place within the confines of the MSM, leading us to a place where our Democracy is threatened because information is travelling primarily through the hands of amateurs and partisans for whom skepticism is a one way street.

It's the mission of Harris County Almanac to work against that.

For your viewing pleasure

106.9 The Point should be contractually required to play this sone once a day until we start paying attention to the true cost of the snake oil our elected officials, community leaders and media (both MSM and alternative) are peddling.

The Truth Will Out.

At first I thought this video was a parody, some kind of political joke of the type you see poli-bloggers cribbing together in some weak-assed attempt at humor. (Or something the Harris County Republican Party might throw in You Tube in hopes of riling up the base.)

Imagine my surprise when I found out it was true. Even worse, there are people out there defending this behavior. Honestly defending it.

And now, there's word that ACORN is going to sue. Despite the fact that they've admitted to firing the employees in the video? On what grounds?

Libel? Not likely. It's not libel if what's being said actually happened, and from all accounts ACORN employees bent over backwards, to the point of advising for breaking the law, to try and get this couple into a home so they could export minors in from Ecuador and turn them into prostitutes.

Was it partisan advocacy journalism? You bet.
Was it criminal? Hardly. Except on the part of ACORN it seems.

It takes a special kind of stupid to fall for this ruse. Stupid that's a little less isolated at ACORN than they'd like to admit. Not pervasive perhaps, but not a one-off either. (Four locations, four similar results, and not one person even questioned what was going on)

That's not libel, them's the facts.

It's so bad that the Senate has stopped their funding and Democrats are shedding ties to the organization like a baby-seal coat at a PeTA rally in the Mojave Desert.

The important thing to keep in mind is that the truth will out. After all, the attack's against Tom Delay and Abramoff were initially characterized as a "left-wing smear campaign" as well. If you have no defense you attack your accusers. It doesn't hurt to have a partisan-blind group of followers who are willing to go to bat for you as well. Always a nice touch.


DEVELOPING: More on the guy who made the videos.

BMW Vision

It will never hit the market in its current form, hopefully the diesel engine and electric technology gets incorporated into something that uses many of the design cues however.

It's 'bite the back of your hand' beautiful however.

Yet another reason why predictions of the automobile's death are premature. Car companies are going to work to ensure that their product is viable in whatever economic environment emerges from this current re-shuffling.

Here in Harris County our transportation movers and shakers don't seem to have a clear grasp of this, and they're moving ahead with transportation designs reflecting decades past.

Also: Tim Spell of ChronBlog provides a glimpse into Audi's future

A change in structure

In case you haven't noticed the "local news" section is now gone from Harris County Almanac. Many more changes to come.

Baseball Season Brings a new poll.

Opening Day for the Houston Astros has local pundits waxing forth.

Here's a sample:

The Clown Vision Chronicles: Game #1 Astros vs. Cubs

Crawfish Boxes: Astros Drop opener 4-2

MLB.com (Alyson Footer): Astros unable to solve Cub's Ace


So, how do YOU think the Astros will do in 2009?

Answer in our polls and expand on that here.