News Outlets Face Increasing Scrutiny in Campaign

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

News Outlets Face Increasing Scrutiny in Campaign
Bloggers Rip Fox Over Screen Text About Mrs. Obama
By SAM SCHECHNER and REBECCA DANA
June 13, 2008; Page A5

For the second time this week, Fox News Channel was driven to respond to criticism over on-air statements about Barack Obama, in this case for screen text that described the Democratic presidential candidate's wife as "Obama's baby mama." The term is often applied pejoratively to unwed mothers.

In a campaign that includes the first viable African-American presidential candidate, the lines of appropriate speech have become fuzzy. News organizations are under pressure from a broad network of self-appointed watchdogs, including organized groups like Media Matters and individuals. These watchdogs are likely to remain vigilant about gaffes, misstatements and potentially biased language through the November vote. Just this week, Gina McCauley, a well-known blogger in Austin, Texas, started michelleobamawatch.com to track the portrayal of Mrs. Obama in the news media.

In this campaign cycle, television news organizations have issued at least 10 apologies in total over on-air expressions. On Tuesday, a Fox News anchor, E.D. Hill, said she regretted suggesting that a celebratory hand gesture between Barack and Michelle Obama might be a "terrorist fist jab." On Monday, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell apologized for calling southwest Virginia "redneck country." Employees at Time Warner Inc.'s CNN and General Electric Co.'s MSNBC, and a contributor to Fox News have all confused "Obama" and "Osama" in the last year in one form or another, and apologized for the mistake.

The most-recent dust-up began Wednesday afternoon during a segment on Fox News by commentator Michelle Malkin about conservative attacks on Michelle Obama. At the bottom of the screen, a headline said, "Outraged Liberals: Stop Picking on Obama's Baby Mama!".. In a statement Thursday, Fox News's senior vice president of programming, Bill Shine, said, "A producer on the program exercised poor judgment" in choosing the screen text. The Obama campaign declined to comment... Ms. Malkin, who is noted for trenchant criticism, said on her Web site that she had nothing to do with the on-screen headline. She pointed out that Mrs. Obama herself used the phrase "my baby's daddy" to refer to her husband in 2004. But that phrase doesn't imply unwed status, many blog commentators argued.

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[ananda]

1. All the news outlets care about is ratings and corporate standing.

They are happy to issue apologies if it means
more viewers.