Unreliable Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in News Media

Argues that the public accountability of the mass media is decreasing, discusses the implications of this trend, and provides guidelines for detecting bias and coverup

Associated with the media-watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), Lee ( Acid Dreams ) and Solomon ( Killing Our Own ) here document their assertion that the media have come to assume the role of spokespeople for the American business establishment, which allegedly runs the U.S. in general and Washington powerbrokers in particular--and whose press releases and other self-promoting testimonials often wend their way, verbatim, into newsprint. Citing the reluctance of newspapers and TV networks to present dissenting views on military spending, environmental pollution, economic policies that frustrate blacks and Hispanics, and American gunboat diplomacy in Latin America, they make a compelling case for the contention that newsmen and women distort current events. And though in the Reagan-Bush era, theirs is certainly a minority viewpoint, the authors remain convinced a change can be wrought.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"The most sacred cow of the press is the press itself." In this book, Lee, publisher of Extra , the journal of the Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) organization, and Solomon, an investigative journalist, make mincemeat of that maxim and detail how often the press is biased. For example: many journalists just wade through their Rolodexes for sources; others make unobjective "we we" on the air ("When are we going to get Noriega?"); and stories on "unpopular" perspectives on race, gender, and politics often go unreported. While this book is most appropriate for serious media collections, all libraries would benefit from a book that advocates media activism, in which "one can learn to be a more critical consumer of the news."-- Judy Quinn, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.