Newspapers

A complaint has been filed with the FTC against the New York Times for false advertising by Jonathan Stein.

"All the news that's fit to print" is false advertising and constitutes a deceptive practice. He claims that the Times' use of "push-polling" is a violation of the FTC Act.

I can't say I'm really happy about this anymore then the

complaint is similar to one filed on July 19, 2004 by MoveOn.org and Common Cause against Fox News' use of the phrase "Fair and Balanced."

In both cases, groups opposed to the editorial view point of the media are trying to silence the media.

I think we would be much better off if we just acknowledge that the media is no objective and never has been. In the US, the media didn't decide to become objective until recently. Want proof? Well, why are there so many papers (especially in the South) that have Democrat or Democratic in their names? They started out giving voice for the Democratic Party. Why do a number of papers in New England have the name Union in their name? They were promoting the viewpoint the US was a Union of states, not separate states.

In the UK, there are papers that have a liberal (Guardian) and conservative (Telegraph) view points. Everyone expects it and it frees the journalists to write the way they want and lets the public know what view point the paper is stressing. Of course the good writers will include opposing view points and by showing both sides of the argument and still concluding their view point is correct gives more credence that they are correct.

Sending the government to attack the media outlet one doesn't agree with is bad news for the US and for the truth.