Biased Journalism (article on kids with life sentences)

Morrigoon · 10-12-2005, 01:15 PM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9667158/

Read this article. Look at the numbers, then look at the volatility of the language.

It gives the number of kids in jail on life sentences, what percentage are for murder, and what percentage are under 15. The thing that gets me is that number. It's like 16% are under 15, of a small number to begin with, yet the article is written as if the courts are an "assembly line for life sentences for juveniles" (I may be paraphrasing the quote they used here, but it's the general tone of the article as well).

I just hate when journalists do this. They can't just report, they have to report in a way that generates the expected response - eg: telling us what to think about it. Yet, anyone with a brain (few Americans actually posess one of these, let alone know how to use it), can see by the numbers that we're talking about a very small minority here of what are probably very dramatic circumstances leading to it happening at all.

Just pisses me off.

10-12-2005, 01:15 PM	#1
Morrigoon I throw stones at houses Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Location: Location Posts: 9,534	Biased Journalism (article on kids with life sentences) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9667158/ Read this article. Look at the numbers, then look at the volatility of the language. It gives the number of kids in jail on life sentences, what percentage are for murder, and what percentage are under 15. The thing that gets me is that number. It's like 16% are under 15, of a small number to begin with, yet the article is written as if the courts are an "assembly line for life sentences for juveniles" (I may be paraphrasing the quote they used here, but it's the general tone of the article as well). I just hate when journalists do this. They can't just report, they have to report in a way that generates the expected response - eg: telling us what to think about it. Yet, anyone with a brain (few Americans actually posess one of these, let alone know how to use it), can see by the numbers that we're talking about a very small minority here of what are probably very dramatic circumstances leading to it happening at all. Just pisses me off. __________________ http://bash.org/?top "It is useless for sheep to pass a resolution in favor of vegetarianism while wolves remain of a different opinion." -- William Randolph Inge
	Submit to Quotes