Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on TwitterBe a Facebook FanTumble us!

03 Nov 2011 23:42

tags

Tech: Playing favorites with search: Who’s more biased, Bing or Google?

  • pro-Google So, let’s say you wanted to find out if there was any bias from what search engines spit out at you. For example, a recent study not done by Google, said that Bing searches would promote Microsoft-related results twice as many times that Google would promote Google.
  • pro-Bing Don’t get too comfortable with those facts, though. A different study, performed by a paid Microsoft consultant, showed claims that Google put itself first most of the time. Do you already know who to trust? Or are you feeling lucky? source

05 Apr 2011 14:53

tags

Politics: Mr. Glass goes to Washington … to defend NPR’s honor

  • frustration Following conservative activist (or hatchet man, if you prefer) James O’Keefe’s video embarrassing an NPR fundraiser, radio host Ira Glass was upset that NPR seemed to cede to claims of a liberal bias, which he thinks is nonsense.
  • pushback Glass took to Washington DC, giving a speech at George Washington University. He said that he’d asked Brooke Gladstone, one of the hosts of “On The Media” to dig up any statistics on these accusations against NPR. source
  • » Numbers and thoughts on bias: Glass cited a study on NPR by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) which found their guests, from a partisan standpoint, were 60% Republican and 40% Democratic. He also defended NPR’s hosts, saying that Michele Norris asking a CEO if we can afford to eliminate taxes for certain companies isn’t bias, because she’d ask the same question of someone in favor of spending increases. But as the first example infers a pro-tax bent, a conservative might decry it as bias when it really isn’t. It’s an interesting take from an interesting man, and we urge you to give the full article a look.

28 Dec 2010 20:25

tags

Politics: Glenn Greenwald reminds CNN what journalism is. (It’s Wikileaks)

  • What we love about this clip: Glenn Greenwald calls out not one but TWO CNN personalities for being biased against Wikileaks. Greenwald, while obviously in Julian Assange’s court, nevertheless makes multiple great points about the similarities between what journalism is and what Wikileaks is. Fact of matter – Wikileaks is creative destruction to government secrecy, and that’s why the government is uncomfortable. Now’s a good time to mention that CNN passed on releasing Wikileaks material. So did the Wall Street Journal. (thanks diegueno)

23 Nov 2010 09:52

tags

Politics: Sarah Palin, circa 1988: For a newscaster, her accent’s pretty thick

  • OK guys, next time we talk about Sarah Palin’s dislike of journalists or how she’s gonna clean up the field of journalism, or how all Katie Couric is biased against her or something, let’s keep in mind this chestnut from 1988, where Palin, as sportscaster, shows her chops as a journalist. For some reason, we still prefer Katie Couric after all of this. (thanks nbclocalsource

03 Jun 2010 21:01

tags

Biz: Show offs. Wal-Mart anticipated costly class-action bias suit

  • 1995 Wal-Mart hired a bunch of lawyers to see if they might be vulnerable to a costly class-action discrimination suit from female workers.
  • 2001 A bunch of female workers file a class-action suit against the company, claiming bias. It then winds its way through the courts.
  • 2010 A lower court decides to let the suit go forward. Wal-Mart plans to appeal that obvious decision all the way to the Supreme Court. source

28 Oct 2009 21:51

tags

Politics: Calling the Fox News black: Shepard Smith chides lack of balance

  • Wow, Fox News reporter Shannon Bream comes off like an uber-snippy something-or-other in this clip, where Shepard Smith notes that Bream made no effort to cover the Democratic side of the New Jersey governor race. Smith – again – comes off like the voice of reason.source

13 Sep 2009 21:55

tags