The "Art" of "False Balance"

by Lurker Fri May 17, 2013 1:44 pm

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere passed 400 parts per million (ppm) on Thursday for the first time in human history. But one thing hasn't changed: false balance still crops up in climate change stories.
False balance occurs when journalists give equal weight to arguments from both sides, regardless of where the facts lie. Climate change is a textbook example of this problem -- in fact, the term was coined in academic papers to criticize climate coverage in the 1990s.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/05/13/climate-change-happy-plants-and-false-balance/194034

by Ben Reilly Fri May 17, 2013 6:58 pm

You see this a lot. Another example is when the press makes as big of a stink over a minor scandal by one party as they did over a major scandal by the other party, in an attempt to seem fair. What would actually be fair is to react proportionately to the scope of the scandal, but the American media is TERRIFIED of accusations of bias, especially liberal bias.

The "Art" of "False Balance"

The "Art" of "False Balance"

Re: The "Art" of "False Balance"