{"id":6644,"date":"2019-09-16T13:48:49","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T13:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/?p=6644"},"modified":"2019-09-16T13:51:59","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T13:51:59","slug":"political-bias-and-political-orientation-maintaining-journalistic-integrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/blog\/political-bias-and-political-orientation-maintaining-journalistic-integrity\/","title":{"rendered":"Political bias and political orientation: Maintaining journalistic integrity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even without formal links with\npolitical parties, media sources typically have a clear political orientation. This\nis most obvious, even extreme, in the case of newspapers, with The Telegraph<\/em>, The Mail<\/em> and The Times<\/em>\nsolidly Conservative. While not a regular supporter of the Conservative Party,\nthe Financial Times<\/em> has a\nright-of-centre orientation befitting its name. Left-of-centre is The Guardian<\/em>, which like the FT<\/em> is not formally linked to a political\nparty though inclined to Labour (more so before the current party leadership).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who write for these\nnewspapers also have their political orientations and predilections. Because\njournalists are also citizens it would be unreasonable to expect them not to\nhold political views. In this context we should distinguish between the political\norientation of a newspaper and author and political bias. Whatever may be the\nwriter’s political orientation we expect a professional reporter to apply a\nconsistent, unbiased analysis. Political orientation should not result in flagrant\npolitical bias in reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two articles on the same day by FT<\/em> journalists Chris Giles<\/a> and Delphine\nStrauss<\/a> demonstrate political orientation generating political bias. Both\narticles address the same issue, fiscal austerity. Under the simple headline,\n‘UK Chancellor signals an end to the “age of austerity”‘, their introductory paragraph reads<\/a>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sajid Javid,\nUK finance minister, reversed a decade of austerity by the Conservative party\nwith a promise to raise public spending ahead of a likely autumn election and a\nlooming exit from the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…[T]he\nchancellor signalled that he would in any case relax this [austerity] rule if\nhe came to presenting a Budget, taking advantage of \u201ca strong fiscal position\nand a record low cost of borrowing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors present government\npolicy as fact (the Chancellor “reversed a decade of austerity”)\nwithout expressing an opinion on the credibility or wisdom of doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the same day in a much longer\narticle, the same authors assess the end of austerity promised by the economic\npolicies of the Labour Party. The headline for this article was far from simple,\n‘Cost soars for Labour’s grand pledge to reshape the economy’. In contrast to\nthe other headline, this one makes a subjective judgement (“cost soars”)\nand employs a condescending adjective to a straight-forward proposal,\n(“grand pledge”). In general, the authors of articles do not write\nthe headlines, so I do not attribute the headline biases to Giles and Strauss. Nevertheless,\nthe two headlines prove very indicative of what follows, one article a\nneutral-to-favourable presentation, the other a highly sceptical and condescending\nexpos\u00e9 that clearly suggests the unsoundness of Labour Party policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first two\nparagraphs of the second article read,<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next\nLabour government will have to find at least \u00a326bn in new tax rises if it wants\nto end austerity, invest in infrastructure, reverse social security cuts and\nlive within its own budgetary rules, according to Financial Times<\/em> research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brutal\nmaths of the public finances mean that shadow chancellor John McDonnell\u2019s plan\nfor \u00a3250bn of increased public investment over 10 years uses up all of the\nwriggle room in Labour\u2019s fiscal credibility rule. The UK opposition party has\npledged to keep public debt lower as a proportion of national income at the end\nof a parliament than at the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giles and Strauss reported that\nJavid “reversed a decade of austerity”, clear and un-nuanced\nstatement. Equally clear in these two paragraphs is their view on Labour\nachieving its goals, not likely because of the “brutal maths” [sic!<\/em> arithmetic] of the public finances;\n\u00a326bn in “new tax” would be necessary. In the first article the reader\nwas told that the cost of the end of austerity would come in at \u00a313.4bn. The\nauthors describe that increase with the statement,<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nWhile Mr Hammond warned that public spending should be battened down until\nBrexit was settled, Mr Javid jettisoned such caution in a statement which\neffectively framed the Conservative manifesto in an election which many expect\nwithin weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one case a spending\nincrease is described as “brutal maths”; in the other case the\nauthors characterise the spending increase as a change in a party manifesto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article about Conservative fiscal policy reports a policy change and leaves the reader to assess the credibility and wisdom of the change. In the article on Labour Party fiscal policy, the authors guide the reader to a conclusion: the plans of the Shadow Chancellor are not credible. The two articles epitomise biased reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo credit: Flickr\/tripu<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two articles on the same day on austerity by Financial Times journalists Chris Giles and Delphine Strauss demonstrate political orientation generating political bias. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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