Posted by
Bungaloe Bill on Monday, September 18, 2006 12:44:09 PM
One of the most popular labor-saving devices of the MSM is the enlistment of those amorphous, anonymous but oh-so-cantakerous "critics." Example: "President Bush says his tax cut proposal will jump-start the economy, BUT CRITICS SAY it will starve orphans and widows and make most of the nation homeless."
Whenever you hear or see a news report that presents an opposing point of view as one held by unnamed "critics," you're experiencing the work of a lazy reporter. Of course if the report goes on to PRESENT an ACTUAL CRITIC, that's different. If the next sentence in the above example is: "One such critic is Professor I.M.A. Blowhard, of the Blowhard School of Economics, who says...blah blah blah..." then, the reporter is doing his job. He has told you that critics of a point of view exist, and he has PRESENTED you with one.
But all too often, the observation that critics disagree with a particular policy or point of view is the end of the story, and is never backed up. When you see an unsupported "but critics say...," you can usually substitute the phrase "but we in the newsroom think..." because that's what's really going on.