Post your response to Ch 7: "I thought our job was to tell the truth" here.
Post your 300 words per usual. In addition, answer the following. Doesn't have to be in paragraph form.
The basic questions are the same:
Also, feel free to express your opinion--agree/disagree or to ask questions issues about which you are not clear.
The chain gang story did make it to air, but it is clear that the bosses wanted a made-up story. The looting during the hurricane story wasn't aired.
Post your 300 words per usual. In addition, answer the following. Doesn't have to be in paragraph form.
The basic questions are the same:
- What do you think is the main point Goldberg is making?
- What are two or three of the most interesting examples he uses to prove his point?
- In your opinion, how serious is the "liberal bias" described in this chapter? Not very, somewhat, or very? Explain in terms of what you think the public should know about an issue. What are some consequences of not knowing the truth.
Also, feel free to express your opinion--agree/disagree or to ask questions issues about which you are not clear.
- Is the false reporting on racial crime: eg the chain gang in Alabama or the looting in the Caribbean a serious issue?
- What do you think about the news falsely calling the victim of a beating an African American when he was not? Why would they do that?
- Who might be affected by these kinds of fake racial crime stories?
The chain gang story did make it to air, but it is clear that the bosses wanted a made-up story. The looting during the hurricane story wasn't aired.
3 comments:
Chapter 7 - Review
“I thought it was our job to tell the truth”
This chapter is talking about the fact there is more blacks in the prison system in Alabama, Goldberg is making the point that the news media are told to stop reporting black people incidents, and to lie about their real race to a more “politically correct” and “progressive” term instead. On page 106 he tells us of a time when the media told a journalist to change the term, they were using to refer to someone. He writes, “‘The victim isn’t American,” Triay told the producer. ‘He’s from Jamaica, in the Caribbean.’ That, one might reasonably conclude, would have been the end of the matter. But it wasn’t. ‘Change it to African-American or the story doesn’t get on air.’” Also he tells us that if its not a major story but has possibly politically incorrect facts, don’t air it. He writes, “Distort the images. If those black men in Alabama were being railroaded simply because of their race, let someone else, with more time, and more money, worry about that. Being compassionate in television news these days means never having to get your hands dirty.” This statement proves the ideology of the news media, they believe not saying anything will be cleaner and keep themselves out of lawsuits. I don’t think this news media would technically hurt anyone, but I do think it is important to stay true to the true facts. Also, it is astonishing that that the leaders and the bosses of the news are telling the workers and journalists to lie. They are telling them that facts really don’t matter when it comes to lawsuits. But the fact is, that if Goldberg had others testifying with him there could be lawsuit against the truth of the news media today, and we could change what lies are being spread around the world.
1. The media is not only reporting false racial crime, but also changing the term we use for blacks. Unfortunately, the fact is that whatever you want to call them will not change their true identity and who they really are.
2. I feel that we can’t say anything anymore, if we call someone something. I feel we are walking on eggshells. Because no matter what the facts are facts, and if most crimes are committed by blacks then they are. Maybe there is just a more black person presence in Alabama, and what is the problem with that?
3. Maybe friends and family that know the criminal would be offended that they would not call them as they are. Other than that, I’m not sure who would be offended other than themselves or their family, or the black community.
Chapter 7 Review Questions
The main point about chapter seven Goldberg makes is mainly about racism in the media and America. He addresses that reporters reported that there were about a nineteen to one ratio of black people in the chain gang. Now these reporters, instead of trying to do their hard work and dig in to see if there really is prejudice and racism in the system of Alabama, just want to gain publicity. They say things like, “Oh, look at all these black people! It’s not fair.” That isn’t real research. They are just making superficial opinions and ideas without finding the truth. Potentially, in this part of town in Alabama, it is mainly a black population. Or maybe most of the crimes committed in this area are by black people. The reporters didn’t do their proper research to see the facts before exposing that Alabama is racist. Of course, there could be some racism going on there, but they can’t report ‘facts’ that they don’t have evidence for.
Some examples Mr. Goldberg uses are, as I previously stated, the chain gangs. They reporters report unresearched, biased, fake news. They favour black people for no reason. Although we know it is terrible what happened in the 19th century, that’s not our fault. We don’t owe black people anything for that. Another example Mr. Goldberg use is the looting that happened after Hurricane Marylin. He talks about how to media back in New York complained because the reports were all black people in the pictures. What they didn’t notice is how the cops were black, the bystanders were black, and just about everyone there was black. All they noticed is that most of the arrestees were black and they didn’t like that.
I believe the liberal bias in this chapter is talked about a lot. The whole chapter is about how to make the white man feel like a criminal and coloured people feel like victims. I believe the public should know that although it is totally terrible what happened to the black people, it isn’t our fault. We didn’t enslave these people in any way, shape, or form. Without knowing the truth, us whites allow ourselves to give up our rights make us look bad while we give black people special treatment.
Second Set of Questions
I think the false reporting on crime is an issue because if we give people false information about other people and things happening in the world, they can form irrelevant, bias, and wrong opinions. Furthermore, we must be honest to people because first of all, it’s the Christian thing to do, and secondly, because it makes people hate some people, while sympathizing people with other people because of misleading facts.
When you say the words “African American”, that instantly makes people think of slaves in the 19th century. Describing someone as black just seems like a description to people. The media wants people to think they beat a slave person, not just a regular citizen of America. It is all part of their plan to make black people superior and sympathized as compared to white people.
Some people that would be affected are pretty much everyone. Even in today’s day and age we see racism to white people now. It is harder to get a job, and we have to sympathize with black people. If we don’t, we are bigots and racists and sexists, even though we did nothing of the sort. Black people are also affected because they are put in a position where they are led to believe they deserve something from the rest of the world and that we are bad. They are also led to believe that they are victims of the world.
Chapter 7 – “I thought our job was to tell the truth.”
Chapter 7 is about the bias in the media regarding race. In this chapter Goldberg makes the point that media elites only care about being ‘compassionate’ if it “costs [them] nothing” (Goldberg 108). He uses many examples to prove that what he is saying is true. One of these is when a news journalist writes a story, they must find many people to quote, seems reasonable, however, those people must be of all different ethnicities. Goldberg writes of reporters making “‘an extra thirty phone calls’” (Goldberg 102) just so that they can get the required multiple ethnicities. In fact, there was one case where a Japanese woman was quoted three times in less than a fortnight just because “‘she fit the bill.’ Translation: she wasn’t white.” This bias is also seen in another news story, when a man went to write a story after a hurricane, he got footage of the cops picking up some looters and hauling them off to jail. The journalist wrote the facts as they were and thought nothing of the story he had just aired. However, his superiors thought otherwise. The looters in the video were all black, his superiors were worried that people would get the idea that them being black and them being looters related to each other somehow. However, “the looters [were] black. And so [were] the cops who arrested them. And so is 95 percent of the island” (Goldberg 104) where the news story took place. I think that this instance is an example of liberal bias that is not as severe as other examples in Goldberg’s book but still important to know about. I think that the public should know about this issue but even more importantly, the public should not assume that just because a couple of looters were black, does not mean that all black people are looters. Even if they do not assume this, the media should not be ‘worried’ about them thinking that. I also think that if the public does not know about this bias, some people will start having skewed ideas about authority. If a newspaper quotes someone it should be because they have some grounds on what they are saying and (at least) some knowledge in the subject, they are speaking on. People should be able to trust the quotes in a newspaper because the people they are coming from have legitimate grounds on which to speak. If someone is quoted just because they are not white, how is the public supposed to trust any of the quotes in a newspaper, or any of the ‘facts’ for that matter, how are they supposed to know whether the quote they are reading is from the knowledgeable sources or the people who are thrown in and have no knowledge on the subject.
1. I think that there are some issues that are more serious, like spreading fear where there shouldn’t be. However, false reporting on racial crime is still an issue serious enough to be brought to the light of day and discussed thoroughly.
2. I think that they are trying to make the word black sound softer. However, it is a foolish war to be fought. The man was from Jamaica. It is out right false to say he was from Africa. They think that saying African American is softer than saying black, but even if it was, Jamaican is just as ‘soft’. If you are going to skirt around the word black and use the country the person came from, you should use the country the person came from.
3. They think that they are being nicer to the races of the world if they, for example, make the chain gang mostly white. However, they are forgetting that favouring one race and putting down another in the process is still racism. They are affecting the races they substitute in to make up for the uneven amounts, and they are affecting the people who read these stories. If a child is brought up with the notion that if there is a gang of three people, there will be at least two different races in it, they will form a sense of prejudice. This will come through maybe on the playground when they push someone out of the group just because ‘they already have enough white friends.’ People need to know the truth.
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