"There might be something to be said for protecting the political clout exercised by today’s media elite if those wielding it constituted even an...
Ideological Homogeneity Among Media Elites
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Public Discourse
Editorial Judgment and Unavoidable Value Choices
"It is not … a question of slanting the news. Almost every story worth reporting requires the reporter to adopt some ‘theory’ of its thrust that...
Framing Through Terminology in Media
"The use of slanted terminology is one of the media’s oldest tricks. One recent and particularly glaring example is the dogged use of Teddy...
Power and Accountability of the Media Elite
"… the issue is an important one, involving the distribution, use, and abuse of power in the American society, and it is not going to go away … In...
Media as Partisan Actors
"… in recent decades the principal media in the United States, responding to liberal intellectual trends once dominant but now much less so, have...
Evolution and Amplification of Media Techniques
"[In the 1960s], journalistic practices underwent sharp modification in the direction of more aggressive, conclusion-oriented reportage. And,...
Limitations and Ideals of Journalistic Objectivity
"It is not … a matter of achieving, or perhaps even pursuing, some ideal of absolute objectivity. All that can be asked or expected is a reasonable...
Winning an Argument vs. Truth
"What do we mean by “winning”? If the objective is to achieve some quick result—to induce a particular action, or even simply rouse an immediate...
Media’s Legal Victories
"When the media win a court case, we all hear about the victory; when they lose, “the issue” (in the words of the New York Times upon one such...
Correcting Argument Mistakes
"While mistakes ought to be admitted as promptly and economically as possible, care ought to be taken to fill the resulting hole in the line of...
Political Conversation vs. Reality
"The talk of politicians when they let their hair down bears very little resemblance to dinner-table chatter in a well-run vicarage, and Mr. Nixon,...
The Gamble of Mass Democracy
"The untested assumption required us to suppose that such an electorate, or at least a majority of its members, would be capable of exercising the...