thoughts on the media

I find the mainstream media to be biased mainly toward its commercial interests, i.e., what news is likely to "sell" rather than whether the editorial staff have a liberal or conservative ideology (Fox network excluded).

The commerical media may appear anti-war and anti-Bush today, but several months ago they were all fawning over our conquering heros and giving us sound bites of grateful Iraqis saying, "Thank you Mr. Bush."

I'm also put off by the lack of depth that very complex stories receive in the mainstream media (e.g., CNN, NBC, Time, etc). The Lehrer News Hour on PBS is one of the few exceptions to the shallow "sound bite" reporting we've come to accept as news.

A fairly broad range of Arab/Islamic perspectives on the Mideast events is available on Mosaic, a program broadcast by the satelite station Worldlink TV. Once again, this is not mainstream commerical media. Although it is certainly biased in its own way, Mosaic still provides a good counter-balance to American mainstream news perspectives on Arab/Islamic affairs.

Finally, there's the Internet--TYJ! This is where I get the majority of my information about the world--and I can pick and choose my sources--there are so many! There's a blogger on the Crossfire site that has some really good essay and issue analysis links...I don't always agree, but his material is certainly thought-provoking.