| Booklist, 11-01-2001 McGowan, William. Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity Has Corrupted American Journalism, Nov. 2001. 250 pages, index. Encounter Books 665 Third Street, Ste. 330, San Francisco, CA 94107, $25.95 (1-893554-28-7) It seemed like a good idea originally, but media critic McGowan says the campaign to ensure minority access and participation in the institutions of a democratic society, hasn't worked out well for American journalism. McGowan presents specific cases from leading newspapers and TV network news coverage to argue that major media stories on race issues, gay and feminist issues, and immigration, as well as stories interpreting statistics, are written to reinforce the so-called politically correct ideology of writers, editors and presenters. Not only is bias written into such reportage, it is characteristic that when conflicting facts come to light, falsifying or complicating the original stories, the contradicted newspaper "buries" the new information on an inside page, reports it curiously, or ignores it. The worst damage done by this bias, McGowan maintains, is to the media themselves, as news readers and viewers, failing to recognize the world the media present as true, stop reading and watching and turn to such alternatives as conservative talk radio--"arguably the Frankenstein monster created by the PC press," McGowan says. Particular media McGowan critiques include ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS/NPR, and among newspapers, especially the Los Angeles Times (scarily negligent on illegal immigration problems), the Washington Post, and, above all, the New York Times. This cogent, nonrhetorical, nonpartisan book should be required reading for anyone concerned about media bias." --Ray Olson |
