Newsweek editor Jon Meacham uses a recent appearance on Charlotte public radio as the launching point for a column about messiness of democratic government.
Among the more amusing details is the description of a listener?s reaction to Meacham?s thoughts about media bias:
A good bit of the interview had been about the role of ideological bias in the media, and I had expressed my view that most Americans are completely capable of sorting through the conflicting viewpoints that come from various outlets in order to arrive at sound conclusions. Or, put more baldly, I do not think either Fox News or The New York Times runs the world. If the former did, then Barack Obama would not be president; if the latter were in control, then the president would not be having so much difficulty at the moment. Instead, the reality is?as usual?muddled.
One of the e-mailers from Charlotte took exception to this, writing that I was “out of touch” with the “average American” and was “overestimating the intelligence” of most folks, who are, in the e-mailer’s view, “undereducated and biased.”
I know it?s shocking that a public radio listener might consider the average person to be undereducated and biased.
For more on media bias, check out this video clip from Jon Ham?s October 2008 presentation to the John Locke Foundation?s Shaftesbury Society.
