Biased reporting in Europe of American politics: A debate

[Platypus]

Is the European press biased when reporting American news and political events? And if so, is that such a bad thing? Discuss.

[afleitch]

Given that American press is biased in reporting American news and poltical events then no it's not a problem. Such is the nature of a free press.

[Јas]

Yes, there's bias there. Though it can probably be said to reflect, to some degree or other, the biases of their audiences (as well as encouraging those same biases).

It is though, I presume, a lesser bias that one would view within various American media covering their own domestic news; and indeed a lesser bias than European media covering other places (Africa, Middle East, etc.).

[Gustaf]

Yeah, it's biased. Really biased, even.

[Franzl]

Given that American press is biased in reporting American news and poltical events then no it's not a problem. Such is the nature of a free press.

even when we're talking about public (as in: taxpayer funded) news sources?

[Gustaf]

Given that American press is biased in reporting American news and poltical events then no it's not a problem. Such is the nature of a free press.

even when we're talking about public (as in: taxpayer funded) news sources?

Which, of course, is pretty much all media in Sweden.

[Insula Dei]

There's no such thing as unbiased media. At the very best it just shares the bias of most of its consumers.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Is the European press biased when reporting American news and political events? And if so, is that such a bad thing? Discuss.

They love the Dems and hate the GOP. Mostly personified by Obama and Bush (pre-2009)/Palin (post-2008).

One could argue that the media is just representative of the opinion in the overall population. I suppose that a too positive reporting on the Republican Party wouldn't be that popular among the majority of the readers/viewers. Unpopular style of reporting = less readers/viewers = less money.

Perhaps a general oversimplification could be bemoaned though. Sometimes it seems like every Republican is a fanatical Palin supporter and every Democrat is a loyal Obamaniac. In other words, Susan Collins doesn't exist.

[Franzl]

Perhaps a general oversimplification could be bemoaned though. Sometimes it seems like every Republican is a fanatical Palin supporter and every Democrat is a loyal Obamaniac. In other words, Susan Collins doesn't exist.

True. That's something the media (and the people) in Germany don't seem to understand, that American "parties" are really just loose groups of somewhat similarly minded people.

Party loyalty and discipline don't exist as a practical matter.

[Insula Dei]

To be fair, the existence of FOX news and the stuff it regularly says about Europe also doesn't help. Most media I follow have a 'major wtf' attitude towards the American right, exactly because of the things the American right seems to believ about Europe.

[Franzl]

To be fair, the existence of FOX news and the stuff it regularly says about Europe also doesn't help. Most media I follow have a 'major wtf' attitude towards the American right, exactly because of the things the American right seems to believ about Europe.

FOX news is one individual, PRIVATE, media source. It's not representative of a general American media bias. (American media is biased towards making money, above all)

FOX saying the UK has death panels isn't really all that different from media here suggesting that every American owns and loves guns.

But at any rate, what Gustaf and I are talking about is a general bias throughout the entire media, not just the behavior of one organization. Some things are simply presented as facts throughout the entire media that are really just somewhat controversial opinions.

The main difference, though, is that a lot of media sources in Europe are PUBLIC. Isn't neutrality the whole purpose of having public news sources?

[Middle-aged Europe]

Given that American press is biased in reporting American news and poltical events then no it's not a problem. Such is the nature of a free press.

even when we're talking about public (as in: taxpayer funded) news sources?

As a result of federalism, the German public media is at least equally biased. So I don't see it as much of a problem, even if there is bias. BR and SWR are pro-CDU/CSU, WDR is pro-SPD for instance. Conservatives also often bemoan the "left-leaning" ARD, while leftists do the same with regards ro the supposedly conservative ZDF.

Don't know whether this applies to American politics, since pro-CDU TV stations could very well be pro-Obama as well. What does the Bayerische Rundfunk think of Obama, for instance? (I wouldn't know, I don't watch BR that often. ).

[afleitch]

Given that American press is biased in reporting American news and poltical events then no it's not a problem. Such is the nature of a free press.

even when we're talking about public (as in: taxpayer funded) news sources?

Which, of course, is pretty much all media in Sweden.

Therein lies the problem

To speak of what I know of; the BBC it is a testament to it's news coverage that it attracts equal criticism from being too 'pro-Israel' or too 'pro-Palestine' on any given news report on the conflict. However, the BBC often makes the mistake of mixing up presenting an opposing opinion with 'balance'. The recent coverage of the surrogacy of Elton John's child for example was not 'countered' by someone who opposed surrogacy but by a UK Christian nut who backed the Uganda gay execution bill. Which is like balancing a report on immigration by interviewing someone who wishes they were shot on arrival. That did not make the news story 'balanced'; if anything it de-railed it.

[Silent Hunter]

Define "bias".

[Franzl]

Define "bias".

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bias

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Yeah, it's biased. Really biased, even.

Agreed.......we're not well loved. 

[Silent Hunter]

Define "bias".

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bias

That's not what I meant. There's two sorts of "bias" in reporting; a focussing on certain areas at the expense of others (say Presidential Elections while ignoring nearly everything else) or deliberately slanted reporting.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Right-wing fringe groups like the "pro Deutschland" movement, the Party of Bible-abiding Christians, or The Republicans = Conservative Republicans

CDU/CSU/FDP = Moderate Democrats / Moderate Republicans

SPD/Greens = Liberal Democrats

Left Party = Left-wing fringe groups like the Green Party or the Socialist Party


This simplified party comparison basically applies to the German media as well. I suppose a pro-SPD newspaper like the Süddeutsche Zeitung has a strictly pro-Democratic point of view when reporting on American politics, while a conservative mainstream newspaper like Die Welt features a more balanced view of Democrats and Republicans (but criticizes "extreme" factions like the Tea Party or Evangelicals as well).

[Insula Dei]

I don't have the impression that most Americans get just what the European reaction to the Iraq war was like. It was not just that the war was impopular, but that it was widely seen as a crime against humanity and hated by the vast majority of Europeans. To this day the death of Coalition (mainly American) troops in Iraq is prone to elicit responses like 'what were they doing there in the first place?' or even 'seems like they got what they were looking for'.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Given that American press is biased in reporting American news and poltical events then no it's not a problem. Such is the nature of a free press.

^^^

[Hash]

There's no such thing as unbiased media. At the very best it just shares the bias of most of its consumers.

^^^

This is correct, of course. Every media source has its bias, and in Europe it tends to be even more pronounced with the tradition of "right-wing papers" and "left-wing papers". Furthermore, given the rise of large media conglomerates/empires the media will obviously share the bias of its owner (ex: Pelladeau's media empire of darkness in Canada). And yeah, it will share the bias of its consumers most of the time or its bias will affect its consumers (the people who read stuff like the Ottawa Sun or Le Figaro don't usually vote left-wing).

For fun, I was watching France 2's nightly news from the day of the Madrid train bombings. Given France's Jacobin bias and France's "Basque problem", it jumped all on the original "blame the Basques/ETA" of the Falangist government in Madrid and proceeded to spew the Spanish State's official version of what ETA is and how it is an evil, evil thing. I suppose the American media that night may have been more temperate and may have privileged the Islamist terrorist idea given that nobody in America cares about ETA.

[Gustaf]

I don't have the impression that most Americans get just what the European reaction to the Iraq war was like. It was not just that the war was impopular, but that it was widely seen as a crime against humanity and hated by the vast majority of Europeans. To this day the death of Coalition (mainly American) troops in Iraq is prone to elicit responses like 'what were they doing there in the first place?' or even 'seems like they got what they were looking for'.

That's kind of idiotic though. And I say that as a European myself.

[Insula Dei]

I don't have the impression that most Americans get just what the European reaction to the Iraq war was like. It was not just that the war was impopular, but that it was widely seen as a crime against humanity and hated by the vast majority of Europeans. To this day the death of Coalition (mainly American) troops in Iraq is prone to elicit responses like 'what were they doing there in the first place?' or even 'seems like they got what they were looking for'.

That's kind of idiotic though. And I say that as a European myself.

Well, I am not endorsing that kind of attitude, but I always have the impression that americans look at Europe's ressentment and think that the war was just impopular and not grasp just how reviled it was.

[Franzl]

Given that American press is biased in reporting American news and poltical events then no it's not a problem. Such is the nature of a free press.

^^^

Perhaps you missed the part about public media sources.

[opebo]

It is biased in the opposite way to which most of you think, but I'm not sure its safe to say that (is it 'trolling'?) and I'm very sure it would not be safe to explain why.