One of our worst traits in journalism is that when we have a narrative in our minds, we often plug in anecdotes that confirm it. Thus we managed to portray President Gerald Ford, a first-rate athlete, as a klutz.
Nicholas KristofRead
We journalists are a bit like vultures, feasting on war, scandal and disaster. Turn on the news, and you see Syrian refugees, Volkswagen corruption, dysfunctional government. Yet that reflects a selection bias in how we report the news: We cover planes that crash, not planes that take off.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Journalists often focus on negative events rather than positive ones, leading to a skewed perception of reality.
In this quote, Nicholas Kristof highlights the tendency of journalists to report predominantly on negative news, such as war, corruption, and disasters, akin to vultures circling around these unfortunate events. This creates a selection bias where audiences receive a distorted view of the world, seeing more coverage of crises and failures than of everyday successes and advancements, thus shaping public perception in a less favorable light.
Themes
JournalismNewsBiasNegativityReporting
In practice
Example use cases
During a seminar on media ethics, this quote could be used to illustrate the responsibility journalists have in reporting.
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The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.
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