More Bias from Reuters?

[Jay Fenello <Jay@Iperdome.com>]

Either NSI has drastically changed positions,
or Reuter's is once again employing bias in
their coverage of the ICANN process!

Here's a recent Reuter's story:


http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19990912/wr/internet_names_3.html
>The process has been delayed by wrangling over fees and database 
>access between the Commerce Department, Network Solutions Inc. and 
>the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), 
>that is meant to oversee the new structure.

Here's a slightly older Inter@ctive Week story:


http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2303100,00.html
>For its part, NSI has steadfastly refused to recognize ICANN, 
>claiming that the organization is overly secret, is illegally 
>taxing Netizens and is demanding onerous concessions in its 
>accreditation contracts with registrars.

For those who missed it the first time around,
here is a description of "framing", and how it
is used to hide the real story from the masses:

At 11:14 AM 8/17/99 , Jay Fenello wrote:
>When you look at all of the coverage provided 
>to ICANN over the last couple of weeks, you will 
>find that virtually all of the stories have been 
>framed as a fight between ICANN's mission to bring 
>competition to the name space, and NSI's desire to 
>hold on to their monopoly (see below).
>
>That's like covering the trees in a forest, 
>but never talking about the forest.
>
>The really important issues are those that 
>transcend the Network Solutions monopoly -- 
>those that will remain after the NSI monopoly 
>is devolved.
>
>Framing the story as above gives the casual 
>reader a mistaken impression of the debate 
>that we are all actively involved in.  To 
>find out more about framing, please see 
>"HOW THE MEDIA FRAMES POLITICAL ISSUES."
>  http://www.west.net/~insight/london/frames.htm
>
>Here are some excerpts:
>
>A frame is the central organizing idea for making sense of relevant events
>and suggesting what is at issue.  Since electoral accountability is the
>foundation of representative democracy, the public must be able to
>establish who is responsible for social problems.  Yet the news media
>systematically filter the issues and deflect blame from the establishment
>by framing the news as "only a passing parade of specific events, a
>`context of no context.'  This "prevents the public from cumulating the
>evidence toward any logical, ultimate consequence."
>
>The power of the press in America is a primordial one. It sets the agenda
>of public discussion; and this sweeping political power is unrestrained by
>any law. It determines what people will talk and think about - an authority
>that in other nations is reserved for tyrants, priests, parties and mandarins.
>
>First . . . objectivity in journalism is biased in favor of the status quo;
>it is inherently conservative to the extent that it encourages reporters to
>rely on what sociologist Alvin Gouldner so appropriately describes as the
>`managers of the status quo' - the prominent and the elite. Second,
>objective reporting is biased against independent thinking; it emasculates
>the intellect by treating it as a disinterested spectator. Finally,

>objective reporting is biased against the very idea of responsibility; the
>day's news is viewed as something journalists are compelled to report, not
>something they are responsible for creating. . . . What objectivity has
>brought about, in short, is a disregard for the consequences of newsmaking.


Respectfully,

Jay Fenello
President, Iperdome, Inc.    770-392-9480
-----------------------------------------------
What's your .per(sm)?   http://www.iperdome.com 

"All truth passes through three stages.  First, it is 
ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, 
it is accepted as self-evident." (Arthur Schopenhauer)