Talk:False balance

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject Journalism, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to journalism. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

[edit] On the proposed merge

As the first sentence of the article makes clear, this is not a synonym for media bias, it is a description of one particular media bias. The charge that it is a neologism is also quite false. As the merge proposal seems to be based on so many false assumptions, I intend to remove it in two days time, if there is no discussion of it before then. -- Antaeus Feldspar 04:42, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

I would like to know where the examples of the inventor and Holocaust denial as "false balance" come from. I'm not disputing either case, I just would like to know where they were called "false balance," since it wasn't in the external link. I don't need a detailed citation, just a comment.

I think you'd be hard-pressed to distinguish the specific criticisms levelled at "media bias" from those against "false balance." It all comes down to reporting or not reporting things contrary to the reader's preference. In any case, I've added some relevant material at media bias#Efforts to correct bias. Gazpacho 02:58, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

It's hard to know what you do and don't want. For instance, when you think I'd be "hard-pressed to distinguish the specific criticisms levelled at 'media bias' from those against 'false balance'", I don't know what you're looking for. You want me to distinguish the specific criticisms against a general class from those against a specific subclass? Would you be willing, for example, to distinguish the specific criticisms levelled at 'media bias' from those levelled against the specific media bias of sensationalism, to show me what you're looking for?

As for the others, I chose them not because they were the examples of false balance where it was easiest to document that someone had called them examples of false balance, but because they were the examples that best documented:

• In the case of the inventor, that yes, news media will run stories that present two "sides" with widely different levels of credibility (a backyard inventor vs. basically every living scientist) in a way that suggests the views have some essential parity after all; and
• In the case of Holocaust denial, that this is a media problem with very serious potential consequences, something that may not be as apparent to all readers if the example were, say, Kerry vs. Bush or global warming, where the reader may in fact be on the side that is alleged to be getting the benefit of the false balance and will therefore have a harder time perceiving where false balance is said to exist in the example.

As for citations for these two examples, well, this isn't the easiest thing to research, since the proverb about "a false balance is an abomination unto the LORD" and references to "false balance" in the accounting sense create a lot of false positives. For the Holocaust denial, I can offer you this, which uses the phrase 'false "balance"' rather than 'false balance', and this, the story it refers to, where over 200 academics protested C-SPAN's decision to give equal time to the claims of Holocaust denier David Irving as to Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt and specifically their use of the word "balance" to describe and justify that decision. I don't know if this will be acceptable to you, since even though they are both clearly talking about false balance, the exact phrase "false balance" with no extraneous quotation marks is never used. As I said -- I don't know what you want. -- Antaeus Feldspar 07:00, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Intelligent Design

Should this be included? I think not. It is cited here as being a common false balance. This isn't true. Theres not a single fact about the beginning of the earth, universe or life. Any theory is just as likely as another. And any evidence present for any side of this issue is highly presumptuous. The so called facts of evolution and origin of the universe are at best estimates based upon other estimates. Theres no conclusive evidence showing any origin as true or false.

Yes, it's fine, because Intelligent Design is given time as though it was science, which it ain't. Intelligent design is a perfectly tenable empiricial position as long as you still accept the big bang, common descent, et cetera. But it is (roughly speaking) irrelevent to science - because it doesn't seem to make any empirical predictions. For what it's worth, many of the facts on the issue of evolution and universe are very well established, and to claim otherwise would be a textbook example of false balance. WilyD 16:08, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Evolution is as difficult to prove as Creationism is.

Um...No. Evolutionary theory has a wealth of evidence for it, including observed speciation, genetics, and concrete applications.

Incidentally, you can sign your comments with four tilde signs in a row - it helps keep track of who said what.

ManicParroT 17:42, 27 October 2006 (UTC)