How Biased is the media?

[Khartoun2004]

hey you all seem to have forgotten that the US has something called the bill of rights. The reason there are so many guns in the US held be civilains is because of the 2nd Amendment to the constitution. Which states that every citizen has the right to keep and bare arms. Period, end of story.

When that amendment was made the US was brand spanking new and very vulnerable to attack from Native Americans, England (war of 1812), France, Cananda, Spain, and countless other European Powers. It was esstential for people to be able to carry weapons to protect their country. The US had a very, and I mean very, small Army that was not well trained at the time and poorly supplied. We mostly relied on local militia to protect cities and towns from attack. That's the precedent for the modern age. That's lawyers use in court and lawmakers in the House Senate use to block gun control laws here in the present. The US Judiciary system is not based off of French jucidary systems where precedent has no meaning, just the law and what it states. Here if you can find enough precedent for something or against something you can change anything, but since the precedent for guns is, Yes you can have them, the idea that will change is highly unlikely anytime in the near future.

That's my two cents.

[kishkash]

LOL@the image of Canada attacking anyone

[haku]

And the concept that colonists were defending "their" country from the attacks of native Americans is interesting...

[shizzo]

Originally posted by haku
And the concept that colonists were defending "their" country from the attacks of native Americans is interesting...

Heh, I made a joke at work on Thanksgiving about how
important and nationalistic it is for Americans to celebrate
the anniversary of a feast preceding the abruptly organized
containment of those whose land was stolen in the interest
of "human rights". And man, that backfired. I don't know
what the reason behind this is*, but a considerable number
of Americans turn blindly defensive of the U.S. at any
mention of past events which darkened the country's
reputation.

[* Actually, I do know. There's a default reflex instilled in
most Americans to "love thy country, defend yeselves" and
so forth. Any anti-U.S. comments are immediately rendered
stupid and ignorant due to the common baseless claims,
such as "The U.S. is the best country in the world!" or "We
have the most (add noun here), so there!", which run
rampant in discussions and debates. The aforementioned
comment was added just to soften the impact of the fact
that followed, just in case anybody here had that same
reflex instilled in them.]

[parrish122]

This reminds me of when I was in college, and my teacher had us defend topics she *knew* we disagreed with. She said that she wanted us to see if we could be creative enough to defend the opinion we were against.

So I got stuck with having to prove that gun control was a bad idea. This was hard for me, since personally I think it's too easy to get a gun these days. Plus everything I looked up supported what I believed.

I ended up basing my paper (that we also had to read to the class) on the fact that people can't depend on other people to protect them. Which is true....not everyone is a good person, and there are many that just won't get involved.

I gave *tons* of examples of people flat-out ignoring when someone was being attacked, not even bothering to call the police.

I ended up getting a perfect score on that paper, even if my teacher complained that I'd given her nightmares.

Parrish

[spyretto]

the media in most countries are similar to the American ones cause it's the Americans who set the standards in this area ( CNN and the like ) So every new reporter all over the world wants to be the next Bernard Shaw. Lots of violence, personal disasters etc. in the news, everywhere.

[ypsidan04]

Originally posted by kishkash
LOL...the american news is a joke...there IS no news. Its all propaganda.

Very few people in the States are getting the full story. They are either blinded by their patriotism to a fatal flaw

I really don't like people that are overly-patriotic.

[Lux]

kishkash - i don't agree.


i think the views here are skewed because of how biased the media is but across college campuses the views are less skewed because the concentration of intelligent people is higher than other places.

[spyretto]

I was thinking exactly the same thing...their over-patrotism and narrow mindedness (sic!) is causing problems. A point in case: As it transpires, G.W Bush will probably be re-elected. The Democrats are making a mistake relying their campaign on things that don't really interest Americans ( especially the war in Iraq ). Bush's re-election may be inconceivable for some but all indications show that it will happen.
I believe the American conservatives are content with the way Bush is handling the situation, getting the problem as far away from them as possible. Americans are divided over Bush and that shows that he'll probably be re-elected, I'm afraid.

This will be a worry for the rest of the world, as what U.S. does affects everybody. With Bush we're heading for another four years of turmoil and fanatism. Things are not going to slow down under the W.G. Bush administration of Neo-Reaganists..

The way the big networks in America are handiling international news is another example. It's because Americans are not interested in what's going on around them as long as it doesn't affect their neighborhood. Ok, some people have servicemen in Iraq but their overt patriotism wins over their personal worries. They're supposed to be serving their country, and the media has brainwashed everybody for the necessity of the war in Iraq, before. They equated Saddam with Hitler, showcased what an immense thread was for America and the world, etc. Ok, well, weapons of mass destruction or Al-Qaeda links were never found but what's the difference anyway, what's done is done now, right? Lets finish the job and get the hell outta there asap.

And what about Palestine? common now!!

This is the impression I get, I've never lived in America to know what is really like. I'm sure there are voices out there hoping for peace but peace for some in America is unfortunately equated with constant turmoil around the world.

[taty994945]

The media is quite biased.

[PowerPuff Grrl]

Ok, it is pretty much a given that the mainstream American media is biased.

How about the news from our own countries?
Can you sense if there is a bias?
If yes, is it a conservative or liberal bias?
etc...

For Canada I can only tell if it involves strictly Canadian affairs. When it does the conversative babble hits you like a tonne of bricks. They'll always examine the Liberal government with a magnifying glass (though, sometimes it is a very good thing that they do).

But when it comes to international affairs though, I really can't spot anything. Fortunately, I watched the BBC (UK), CNN (US), MSNBC (US), FoxNews (US), and CBC (Canadian) so I could get a comparison from the media outlets from three different countries. As it has already been establish, the American media is biased, I so won't go into that. With BBC though, I got the impression that they truly wanted this war to fail miserably, so yeah, I think there's is a left wing bias there (what a contrast!).

But with CBC I didn't pick up on any leanings on any side. Maybe it is because I'm Canadian I couldn't really see it or something. Perhaps there are some Americans residing near the border that could comment on the coverage.