July 31-August 6, 2003

loose canon

Straight Up, Partisan Chaser

by Bruce Schimmel

Here’s a puzzler: How come the American public is asking for news reporting that is neutral, and yet are demanding that it comes from a pro-American viewpoint?

That's the apparent contradiction in a report just released by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

According to a recent nationwide survey, 70 percent said that news media "should embrace a decidedly Œpro-American' viewpoint." Yet when asked specifically about the coverage of the "war on terrorism," public opinion shifts sharply to the other side. Given the choice of pro-American versus neutral reporting about terrorism, 64 percent favored coverage that was neutral; even among those who favor pro-American news coverage in general, 62 percent wanted the story straight when it came to terrorism.

Confused? Yes, we are, and there's more to suggest that Americans are not only divided among themselves, but within ourselves. Though we want more fact reporting than flag waving about terrorism, fewer Americans want unvarnished reporting on the military. In 1991, by over a 2-to-1 margin (59 percent to 28 percent), the public said that criticism of the military was a good thing, which keeps us "better prepared militarily."

Today, support for such reporting is dwindling, with 45 percent just edging out the 43 percent who believe that press reports "weaken the country's defenses." Part of the explanation lies in Rupert Murdock, whose newspapers and Fox News Channel is apparently changing, if not confusing, people's expectations of the media.

Fox News people are unabashed flag-wavers, yet tout being objective and factual, as in "We report, you decide."

And Americans are buying this. In January 2002, according to Pew, 16 percent got their news primarily from Fox. As of last month, some 22 percent did.

Yet, in the same Pew report, 71 percent of us expressed great concern about newly enacted FCC rules that would allow fewer corporations to own more media outlets. These FCC rule changes would benefit the growing Fox network.

The American people are confused because the rules for news are changing. The "objective" standard, which governed reporting in the latter half of the 20th-century in America, is crumbling. In its place, we are reverting to a more partisan standard, the kind that always informed much of the media outside the United States.

Meanwhile, Americans seem to be asking for the impossible -- for partisanship and objectivity. They want their news straight up, but with a patriotism chaser. They want the facts their way.