On this week’s episode of Seattle Nice, things get heated when we discuss the state of the national media, including the Washington Post and NPR. David—who recently wrote a piece for Post Alley lamenting the supposed lack of “balance” at KUOW, where he worked—argued that reporters no longer see the need to present both sides of contentious issues like the right to abortion, and called this a troubling development that veers too close to activism.
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I countered that even purportedly neutral news outlets like NPR have shifted the way they talk about issues (and even which issues they consider contested) over time. Not so long ago, outlets like the New York Times dehumanized undocumented immigrants as voiceless “illegal aliens”; gay men were uncritically decried as “deviates”; and news stories belittled “office girls” while ignoring their concerns about pay and working conditions. (Check out this typical mid-50s piece about “girls” invading “one of the last frontiers of man’s privacy—his office” by spending “all day” making themselves pretty at work.) In the future, I argued, there could come a time when women’s right to health care isn’t a matter of debate, and the “life begins at conception” argument will be consigned to the dustbin with other anti-science religious rubbish
Sandeep agreed with David that listeners and readers are gravitating away from outlets that have abandoned the old both-sides ethos, and lots of yelling ensued.
Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Love and support your work here on Publicola, but can’t stomach Sandeep. He seems to lack any coherent viewpoint and is impervious to reasoned argument.