Your COVID politics can be lethal

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. - Ephesians 4:25

 It Makes No Sense

We have a raging pandemic. Now is the time to put political differences aside for the health and well-being of everyone. But not if you've sipped the Kool-Aid of Trump's Republican Party. Loyalty to the Trump line is of paramount importance to these people. And...The needs of the individual trump all needs, even if such assertions are against their best interests. 

I didn't have to go back too far to find precedent for the desire to die of COVID for a political cause.

One of the key takeaways from the 2016 election was the frustration of a widening group of lower middle income white Americans. Trump's message was particularly appealing to this group. There is a growing unease as the middle class is excluded as more wealth is concentrated in the upper caste. The stress is having a negative effect. Life span expectancy has dropped two years for white males.

In the book Caste, written by Isabel Wilkerson, asserts the widening gap is causing an increasing group of disaffected Americans. 

From the book: 

"Exclusion cost lives, up and down the hierarchy. The physician Jonathan M. Metzel, who has conducted research into the health of disaffected whites in middle America, has measured the life and death consequences of state decisions to withhold benefits seen as helping undeserving minority groups. In the state of Tennessee he found restrictive health policies may haver cost the lives of almost 4,600 African-Americans between 2011 and 2015, but also cost the lives of as many as 12,000 white Tennesseans, more than double the loss sustained by black residents."

"In his book, Dying of Whiteness, Metzel told of the case of a forty-one-year-old white taxi driver who was suffering from an inflamed liver. His life obviously threatened. Because the Tennessee legislature had neither taken up the Affordable Care Act nor expanded Medicaid coverage, the man was unable to get the expensive, lifesaving treatment that would have been available to him had he lived across the border in Kentucky. As he approached death, he stood by the conviction that he did not want the government involved."

"No way I want my tax dollars paying for Mexicans or welfare queens, he told Metzel." Ain't no way I would ever support Obamacare or sign up for it. I would rather die."

"And sadly, so he would." 

We see the same sad consequences playing out in red states today. Refusal to wear mask, refusal to keep social distancing, and refusal to get the vaccine. The Delta Variant is making the unvaccinated very ill. Yet, so many are sticking by their decision to refuse being vaccinated. A decision reinforced by misinformation fired by social media posts and conservative 'news' outlets. The argument might be something like, "If they make us take the vaccine, they'll be coming for our guns next!" 

Even Mitch McConnell is alarmed. He urging his constituencies to get the vaccine or risk shutting everything down again. Missing from this quote is mention of needless suffering , and needless death. I don't think they're listening.

The nation as it is currently constituted has never dealt with a yesterday or tomorrow where we were radically honest, generous, and tender with each other. - Kiese Laymon, Heavy (2018)

Finding News You Can Trust

What to look for

UCMerced put together some really clear guidelines on what news consumers should be looking for.

Characteristics of Reputable Newspapers

• publishes accurate content; checks facts, and if errors are made, corrects them
• uses reputable sources (people, documentation) and verifies those sources
• presents headlines which accurately represent the article content; headlines don't play on readers' emotions
• clearly identifies authors of articles with bylines
• produces its own content; doesn't merely aggregate content from other sources
• clearly identifies content types (e.g. report vs. editorial)
• conducts reporting not just editorializing
• employs journalists who follow the profession's code of ethics
• Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics, four main sections: Seek Truth and Report It, Minimize Harm, Act Independently, Be Accountable and Transparent
• 10 Elements to Good Journalism (American Institute Press), selected from Kovach and Rosenstiel's book The Elements of Journalism.

As long as public a radio and television can continue to meet these standards, it will continue to meet the expectations of its audience. These standards need to adhered to no matter the platform.

Pew Research points out who you trust depends on your politics, but do politics make for reliable news? 

According to Melissa Zimdars, assistant professor of communication & media, Merrimack College, this is what you should watch out for. 

• Avoid websites that end in “lo” ex: Newslo. These sites take pieces of accurate information and then packaging that information with other false or misleading “facts” (sometimes for the purposes of satire or comedy). Example: Newslo also using URL politicot.com (similar to a legitimate news site)

• Watch out for websites that end in “.com.co” as they are often fake versions of real news sources. Example: abcnews.com.co (This domain is now available.)

• Watch out if known/reputable news sites are not also reporting on the story. Sometimes lack of coverage is the result of corporate media bias and other factors, but there should typically be more than one source reporting on a topic or event.

• Odd domain names generally equal odd and rarely truthful news.

• Lack of author attribution may, but not always, signify that the news story is suspect and requires verification.

• Some news organizations are also letting bloggers post under the banner of particular news brands; however, many of these posts do not go through the same editing process (ex: BuzzFeed Community Posts, Kinja blogs, Forbes blogs).

• Check the “About Us” tab on websites or look up the website on Snopes or Wikipedia for more information about the source.

• Bad web design and use of ALL CAPS can also be a sign that the source you’re looking at should be verified and/or read in conjunction with other sources. Example: Drudge Report

• If the story makes you REALLY ANGRY it’s probably a good idea to keep reading about the topic via other sources to make sure the story you read wasn’t purposefully trying to make you angry (with potentially misleading or false information) in order to generate shares and ad revenue.

• If the website you’re reading encourages you to DOX individuals, it’s unlikely to be a legitimate source of news.  DOX refers to publishing an individual's personal information with the intent of causing harm.

Naming Names

• It’s always best to read multiple sources of information to get a variety of viewpoints and media frames. Some sources not yet included in this list (although their practices at times may qualify them for addition), such as The Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, and Fox News, vacillate between providing important, legitimate, problematic, and/or hyperbolic news coverage, requiring readers and viewers to verify and contextualize information with other sources.

In The Middle

If you're looking for something centrist as your news source, the University of Michigan came up with these names.

Common Ground: Centrist News Sources

Wall Street Journal
Daily business-focused newspaper based out of New York City.

The Wall Street Journal has a bias rating of "Center" according to AllSides. The Pew Research Center found that the Wall Street Journal is read by people of all political leanings and is the only news source that is more trusted than distrusted by people all across the political spectrum. There is, however, some debate but it has been accused of being biased to both the left and the right.

BBC News
The British Broadcasting Corporation News division produces television, radio, and internet news. The BBC is a public service broadcaster established by a Royal Charter of the United Kingdom.

The BBC News has a bias rating of "Center" from AllSides. According to Pew, BBC is more trusted than distrusted among the different ideological groups except for consistently conservative individuals who view BBC as about equally trusted as distrusted.

USA Today
American daily newspaper that provides both news and entertainment coverage.

USA Today has a bias rating of "Center" from AllSides. According to the Pew survey, USA Today is more trusted than distrusted among the different ideological groups except for consistently conservatives who view USA Today as more distrusted than trusted.

Almost Center News Sources

The following news sources are rated as "Center" by AllSides and are noted for stating an independent and unbiased agenda, as well as consistently providing balanced coverage (giving time to both sides of an issue). However, they are listed here as almost center because of audience distrust from conservatives.

Respondents to the Pew survey who are consistently liberal, mostly liberal, and mixed views, rated these sources as more trusted than distrusted. Mostly conservatives rated them as about equally trusted as distrusted; Consistently conservatives rated them as more distrusted than trusted.

NPR
National Public Radio is a U.S. private and publicly funded non-profit organization that syndicates to a network of local stations.

PBS NewsHour
The Public Broadcasting Service is a non-commercial U.S. television broadcaster and distributor.

Looking Further

Look to Reuters, The Associated Press, The Times, The Post, The Hill, Politico, and The Week for more coverage. Other perspectives can be found by reading Op-ed pieces from a broad range of columnists, conservative, moderate and liberal. Search for writers with legitimate journalism credibility. Rumor mongers and punditry are less reliable. (Public media users tend to be turned off by these two groups.)

Finding reliable news sources can be problematic. Algorithms tend to classify you by your clicks. If you happen to click on a particular kind of sight (Conservative or Progressive), the algorithms will send you more of the same. The system will reinforce that particular viewpoint. It makes looking for diverse viewpoints and opinions more difficult. Aiming your search to centrist sources help mitigate that problem.

 

 

Is it live or, is it Memorex?

Do you remember that ad campaign from Memorex tape? The campaign was promoting cassette recording tapes. The assertion was that the quality of the tape was as good as a live performance.I'm guessing you're over 40 if you remember.

Fred Jacobs blogged today that more TV viewing is done on a delayed basis. Jacobs points to data that suggests that it is not rare for most of the audience for Fox's Glee is watching after the fact on DVR's or On Demand.

Fred says that radio's live quality is unique.

"If you think about it, radio looks like it may end up being the last live broadcast medium.  Not only is radio more personal – chances are you’re listening by yourself – but it also has that live, you-never-know-what’s-going-to-happen next feeling."

I'm in agreement. That feeling can be lost with voice tracking. The immediacy can be lost too. Voice tracking on weekends and at night is a great way to save money. But, if a line of thunderstorms rolls through or, if a tornado touches down or, if there's an earthquake. The fact that you have a lot of listeners on Saturday morning should be enough motivation to be live and engaging.  That opportunity to be engaging is lost with voice tracking. 

In public radio, voice tracking can kill the fund drive too. If the talent is unable to interact and react to the content or update the challenge...the immediacy and urgency is lost. At least, that has been my experience.

Engaging the audience is an important element of the radio experience. I was taught that radio is a personal medium. I was taught that the companionship of radio is important to the listener. That companionship can be lost when thinking about the bottom line or the convenience of the staff. Think carefully about when voice tracking can be used. The decision might be penny wise but pound foolish. Turn your audience away and it will affect listening. Diminished listening and you will diminish listener support.

A Call For Fox To Help Fund NPR

An Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post by Steve Coll calls for commercial broadcasters and cable outlets, like Fox News, to fund public broadcasting. The idea is not new. I've heard the idea discussed since the early 8o's when I was studying Mass Communications. The idea is, a set aside from commercial broadcasters would be the best way to fund public broadcasting. This would help ensure Public Broadcasting's future and help it fulfill its mission to serve under-served communities.

Public Radio is grappling with this issue. Despite growth to about 30 million listeners in the past decade, public radio stations are looking for ways to increase diversity in its audience. Steve Coll included in his article the BBC's handling of criticism that its coverage was left leaning. BBC managers studied their coverage and did not find they leaned in any particular direction but, did find they were not covering stories that appealed to conservatives. According to Coll, the BBC solved their problem by broadening their coverage. Coll recommends a similar self-examination for NPR.

At the recent PRPD Conference in Denver, a panel that included representatives from the CBC talked about how they broadened their coverage to be more inclusive. (Panel: The Next Step Up: Inclusiveness -  Farai Chideya (Moderator); Keith Woods, NPR; Kashmir Birk, Bioss; Susanne Marjetti, CBC)   The CBC deliberately became more inclusive in their coverage to reflect the diversity of their communities served.  The panel members from the CBC their audience grew. Not just numbers, but also in diversity.

I strongly recommend this piece. There are many more ideas that can be drawn on to build a stronger Public Broadcasting system.


Steve Coll, a former managing editor of The Washington Post and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, is president of the New America Foundation.