US media still on the defensive

This piece of news from the US caught my eye today. It seems that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, two of cable news network MSNBC's most popular personalities, have been demoted after the McCain campaign complained of a "liberal bias" in their coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions. For those in Europe who often find themselves perplexed by US broadcast media, this is probably an excellent lesson for understanding it.

There's been speculation over the past two years that MSNBC, which consistently ranks third among the cable news networks (behind Fox News and CNN) and has had trouble finding its voice since its inception, is going to veer to the left to try to become the "Fox News of the left." Fox News, which was launched in the late 90's promising to deliver news free of "liberal bias," is reviled by the left for its strongly conservative slant. All of Fox News' main personalities are right-wing, and its news coverage is often blatantly (and hillariously - as often featured on the Daily Show) enamoured with the Bush Administration and the Republican party. Tapping into the widely held American belief that there is a "liberal bias" in the US media, the network has been remarkably sucessful and consistently ranks above CNN.

So the thought was, MSNBC might try to emulate that success by becoming a network that favors the democrats. They began featuring Olbermann, who is a frequent critic of the Bush Administration and the GOP, more and more prominently. And Chris Matthews, who has been with the network since the begining, has been increasingly critical of the Bush Administration.

Another human rights condemnation? yawn

During my sometimes tedious days at work I frequently check Google news to get up-to-the-minute breaking news on everything that’s going on. The great thing about the site is it goes through publications all over the world and shows you what has been statistically written about the most in various categories. In that way, there’s no editorial filter and you get to see the raw news, with no one deciding what is important and what is not except the pure law of numbers, which thankfully also tends to show what is most important. Fortunately the pool only includes reputable news organizations (aside from the entertainment section) so you’re not getting literally what is most popular but rather what is most published.

One of the most interesting aspects of the site is that you can monitor how different areas of the world are covering the same news event. And one of the more frequent occurrences is that a story will get high-level play everywhere in the world except in the US.

Such was the case today when the UN human rights committee issued its most scathing critique yet on the human rights violations of the United States After a two-day hearing in Geneva last week into US compliance with the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the committee concluded that the United States is in serious violation of the treaty through its extensive secret interrogation and detention program for terror suspects. The document is probably the most critical and serious human rights report ever concluded by the UN about a Western nation.