Fight the Bias and Think Through Your Lens
OK, today is "crucial Tuesday" as the news is calling it - or maybe it's just CNN that's calling it that. While I know that this is tied to an important event in the U.S., I always approach it with some cynicism, now even more so having read about the history of social welfare policy and the "welfare state" called the United States. And fortunately maybe, my TV is still busted and I haven't had time to call about it being repaired (I'm sure I could be doing that right now but I'd prefer to blog, heh heh) so I have not been too inundated by election hype. But all the cynicism aside, I do know that it is an extremely important current event - and even more so as I am pondering the vote, or my vote, shall I say.
As I ponder the candidates and their issues, read news articles, and of course watch one of my daily podcasts - Anderson Cooper 360, I have to admit that I'm just not enchanted or sucked in by all this debate surrounding the candidates. The bickering, the retaliations, attacks, public speeches all fail to captivate me or swing me one way or another except maybe do a 180 from the election news and roll my eyes. So what if Obama has limited experience? That might be good, that might be bad. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton's experience might also be good or bad. After all, Hillary Clinton's experience might lend biases to her administration whereas Obama wouldn't as he has not had those experiences. Perhaps it's the nature of the beast, or maybe even human nature, when competitive to bring it all on. I'm still not satisfied with any candidate's stand on issues - Clinton, McCain, or Obama. I want to hear more about the issues these people stand for, the real issues, not the choice ones that seem important and yet they just seem to skim the surface of them, but the ones that will impact 90% of Americans on a daily basis. Why not 100% you ask? Glad you did. The 10% I left out is the upper echelon of the US society that lives in wealth and riches, owning no less than 75-80% of the stocks in America. For them, these elections may not impact them in any manner, except perhaps be to their benefit or be a very minute inconvenience. So, as they have marginalized the working class and poor in this country, so my blog chooses to marginalize them.
Now, I went on the Live Blog out of curiosity (which only lives up to the name during certain hours of the day, by the way) for Anderson Cooper 360, and here's something I found from last night's live-blogging:
Anderson Cooper writes: "good evening everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend. So are we biased against hillary clinton? We are going to look at that issue tonite.. IFor the record, let me say I hate bias of any sort, and take accusations of it very seriously. I think about it all throughout the day, and try to make sure my personal beliefs do not affect how I cover something. I can tell you everyday, i get emails from viewers saying we are pro obama but i also get lots of emails saying we are pro hillary… I also get a lot of emails saying we are stooges of the Bush administration.. and pawns of the political Left. I think its an important thing to discuss and always keep in our minds as we cover the days stories."
I think as a news anchor, he makes a good point and this is probably why I think he's a good reporter despite some of the ill-feelings I have for the media and news outlets including CNN. But, I also think about how hard it is to keep biases out of anything we do as people. I think generally being who we are inherently lends to our biases; biases just tends to be a "bad-sounding" word to describe that. What my genes are, what my family up-bringing was like, how I was educated, where I was raised, where I've traveled, what I've seen, what the history of my culture is, and what I believe in all form the lens through which we view things. To insist that we are "value-neutral" would be to deny our humanity and the very things that make us who we are.
The biases he talks about here I think are more those judgments that color the way things are presented so as to misrepresent what is really being conveyed - like conveying things with a hidden agenda, or intentionally for a specific outcome. And I admire the fact that this man thinks about it throughout the day because if we are not consciously aware of what biases we have and can have, it can permeate and color our lens in ways that we do not even realize. But why is this a big deal? And why am I blogging about it? Because it's election time...and because we know that the political system has its own inherent biases, formed by those who have been in power over the decades. Biases that create division, not just by race, but by class, by religion, and by gender. Biases that ensure that whether a New Democrat or an old, Republican, or Christian Coalition, the income inequality in this country increases and the businesses win no matter what while poverty deepens and the working class continue to hustle and hustle trying to grasp the wisps of a disappearing mirage called "the American Dream".
I personally want to become aware of my biases, and fight them, in order to think through my lens - the lens of what I believe in and what it means to value social justice, social action, and recognize the inequalities that permeate this (increasingly capitalistic) "democratic" nation. I want to recognize biases in the bigger political beast and hope for some reform, beginning with a president who does not believe in carrying out his/her biases but rather chooses to fight them and think through the lens of what is actually good and right for the majority of Americans, not the minority wealthy, and are spouting during the time of campaign - someone strong enough to carry it out while in office, through the lens of character and integrity. And if we are not going to get a president who can fight these biases, I want to encourage people to fight it themselves. This is, after all, a democracy....Regardless of the market filter that covers it, the unity of people and voters can count for something, I hope, without it coming down to "one dollar, one vote"....
As I ponder the candidates and their issues, read news articles, and of course watch one of my daily podcasts - Anderson Cooper 360, I have to admit that I'm just not enchanted or sucked in by all this debate surrounding the candidates. The bickering, the retaliations, attacks, public speeches all fail to captivate me or swing me one way or another except maybe do a 180 from the election news and roll my eyes. So what if Obama has limited experience? That might be good, that might be bad. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton's experience might also be good or bad. After all, Hillary Clinton's experience might lend biases to her administration whereas Obama wouldn't as he has not had those experiences. Perhaps it's the nature of the beast, or maybe even human nature, when competitive to bring it all on. I'm still not satisfied with any candidate's stand on issues - Clinton, McCain, or Obama. I want to hear more about the issues these people stand for, the real issues, not the choice ones that seem important and yet they just seem to skim the surface of them, but the ones that will impact 90% of Americans on a daily basis. Why not 100% you ask? Glad you did. The 10% I left out is the upper echelon of the US society that lives in wealth and riches, owning no less than 75-80% of the stocks in America. For them, these elections may not impact them in any manner, except perhaps be to their benefit or be a very minute inconvenience. So, as they have marginalized the working class and poor in this country, so my blog chooses to marginalize them.
Now, I went on the Live Blog out of curiosity (which only lives up to the name during certain hours of the day, by the way) for Anderson Cooper 360, and here's something I found from last night's live-blogging:
Anderson Cooper writes: "good evening everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend. So are we biased against hillary clinton? We are going to look at that issue tonite.. IFor the record, let me say I hate bias of any sort, and take accusations of it very seriously. I think about it all throughout the day, and try to make sure my personal beliefs do not affect how I cover something. I can tell you everyday, i get emails from viewers saying we are pro obama but i also get lots of emails saying we are pro hillary… I also get a lot of emails saying we are stooges of the Bush administration.. and pawns of the political Left. I think its an important thing to discuss and always keep in our minds as we cover the days stories."
I think as a news anchor, he makes a good point and this is probably why I think he's a good reporter despite some of the ill-feelings I have for the media and news outlets including CNN. But, I also think about how hard it is to keep biases out of anything we do as people. I think generally being who we are inherently lends to our biases; biases just tends to be a "bad-sounding" word to describe that. What my genes are, what my family up-bringing was like, how I was educated, where I was raised, where I've traveled, what I've seen, what the history of my culture is, and what I believe in all form the lens through which we view things. To insist that we are "value-neutral" would be to deny our humanity and the very things that make us who we are.
The biases he talks about here I think are more those judgments that color the way things are presented so as to misrepresent what is really being conveyed - like conveying things with a hidden agenda, or intentionally for a specific outcome. And I admire the fact that this man thinks about it throughout the day because if we are not consciously aware of what biases we have and can have, it can permeate and color our lens in ways that we do not even realize. But why is this a big deal? And why am I blogging about it? Because it's election time...and because we know that the political system has its own inherent biases, formed by those who have been in power over the decades. Biases that create division, not just by race, but by class, by religion, and by gender. Biases that ensure that whether a New Democrat or an old, Republican, or Christian Coalition, the income inequality in this country increases and the businesses win no matter what while poverty deepens and the working class continue to hustle and hustle trying to grasp the wisps of a disappearing mirage called "the American Dream".
I personally want to become aware of my biases, and fight them, in order to think through my lens - the lens of what I believe in and what it means to value social justice, social action, and recognize the inequalities that permeate this (increasingly capitalistic) "democratic" nation. I want to recognize biases in the bigger political beast and hope for some reform, beginning with a president who does not believe in carrying out his/her biases but rather chooses to fight them and think through the lens of what is actually good and right for the majority of Americans, not the minority wealthy, and are spouting during the time of campaign - someone strong enough to carry it out while in office, through the lens of character and integrity. And if we are not going to get a president who can fight these biases, I want to encourage people to fight it themselves. This is, after all, a democracy....Regardless of the market filter that covers it, the unity of people and voters can count for something, I hope, without it coming down to "one dollar, one vote"....
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