Sunday, September 2, 2018

BuzzFeed media bias article leaves misimpressions. (That may be the point.)

Sharyl Attkisson  
"Today I received an inquiry from BuzzFeed reporter Tasneem Nashrulla that appeared so sloppy— even for a writer at a quasi-news site– that it was particularly remarkable.
"First, the reporter contacted me only after the article that mentioned me was published. (That’s sort of frowned on in journalism circles.)
"Then, when I pointed out the reporter’s errors and misimpressions and asked for a correction, the reporter and his or her editor declined.
"The subject matter was a Media Bias chart I constructed some time ago. (See here.)
"See what you think of the BuzzFeed position.

Original email from reporter: 
Hello Sharyl,
This is Tasneem Nashrulla, a reporter with BuzzFeed News. I’m writing about President Trump’s claims this morning about Google search results being “rigged” against him to shut out conservative media outlets.
He appears to have seen this on last night’s episode of Lou Dobbs Tonight which cited a PJ Media study that used your Media Bias Chart from 2017 to analyze Google search results on two different computers to test the premise that Google search results had an anti-conservative bias.
I saw that you updated your chart today. Could you tell me what prompted you to update the chart today and what changes did you make to the original chart?
You had earlier included a link to this Lorain County Community College site which contained a list of the political leanings of magazines and newspapers. The link no longer appears in your article. Did you delete the link today and if so, why?
You included a link to a Pew Research Center chart as a source for your media bias chart. The Pew chart says it measures audience bias, not media bias. Can you explain how this study factored into your chart?
Do you believe that your chart is an accurate representation of media bias and if it can be effectively used to analyze Google search results to show that Google has an anti-conservative bias?
We’ve published our story on the study, and will update it with your responses.
Thank you.  Tasneem.
 . . . 

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