The pet peeve that I have with mainstream news media, such as Fox News, CNN, Fox Business Channel and others, is how they blur or hide facts from viewers and conceal their opinion in newscasts.
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IntroductionI was shocked to learn that Western Queens where I live has the highest percent of adults without health insurance among all 42 New York City neighborhoods, that I’m living in the worst neighborhood in the city in regards to health insurance coverage.
However, as I rethought the information provided by The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, I realized that a lot of illegal immigrants live in my area and that they pay out of pocket for their health related issues and use emergency rooms as their primary health care providers. According to health department records, 56 percent of immigrants cannot apply for Medicaid and other public health insurances that are free or are low cost for individuals.
According to 2003-2004 HMH stats, the average annual death rate in West Queens was slightly lower than the rate in Queens overall and more than 20 percent lower than the rate in New York City overall. According to crime rate information from NeighborhoodScout.com my chances of becoming a victim of a violent crime was one in 229 in Queens. I believe a lot of my neighbors would feel comfortable with this seemingly small ratio, but I am skeptical of these stats because I know there are a lot of violent crimes that occur in the surrounding areas of other Queens neighborhoods.
And these numbers seem too small for me. My DHMH neighborhood statistics provide what I believe to be more accurate representations of my area: 20,641 robberies, 110,828 major felony crimes, and 762 reported rape crimes.
I reside in the Woodside section of Queens, and I have been living here for the past 12 years. I have seen many changes in this neighborhood. Originally, Woodside was dominated by Caucasians of Irish American decent. Today, however, there is a huge ethnic mixture, such as African Americans, Hispanics of Caribbean decent mostly, and Asians. There still is a large number of Irish pubs and sports bars. According to the U.S. Census, Woodside is made up of middle class household and the medium annual income is $31,447. The actual statistics of the demographic is 43.1 percent white, 3.4 percent black, 38.1 percent Hispanic, 29.9 percent Asian, 16.4 percent other.
The local community board is CB 1, and the neighborhood is represented by City Councilmember James G. Van Bramer, recently elected.
I use NY1 for my news because it seems to be a solid, impartial and straight-to-the-point news channel that features a lot of important and relevant news stories about the city, such as new regulations, crimes, transit alerts, talks within city government and many more. It also has a very nice On Demand feature that can be split into boroughs, and I can choose which borough news that I want to access right from my remote.
These borough segments focus on local events that happen in the communities, City Council and Queens as well as report on heartwarming “local heroes” who go above and beyond to help community residents by offering some sort of free services. I watch NY1 at least two times a day since I find that it is quick and convenient for me to get information.
For state, national, and international news, I turn to online sources such as Google News, an incredible site because it gathers all of the top news bulletins from many of the world’s top news sources such as the BBC, New York Times, and the Washington Post among others. It constantly updates the latest news information 24/7 so that the subscribers can stay informed. In addition, I watch “World News Tonight” on ABC. This is a solid program that reports on current dilemmas with a serious attitude about numerous nations. I watch this program every evening so that I can know what is going on with foreign policies and relations and other international issues.
The rising number of homeless families with children is an important issue for me, and I do not really see any relief at sight. The Department of Homeless Services last summer announced a program for one-way travel ticket for homeless families to go to other states and stay with family members willing to take them in. The logic was that it was much cheaper to spend $600 or so for a plane ticket than thousands of dollars to house a family in an already overcrowded homeless shelter system.
On a national level, my top concerns are the high number of families unemployed across the nation, and also the intensive and controversial health care battle which has confused many citizens. According to a recent Times article by David M. Herszenhorn and published September 30, “6 out of 10 people in the United States are confused about the plans to overhaul the health system.” He also wrote, “Nearly half say they don’t know enough about the plans to have an opinion, and one-third can’t fathom a guess as to whether, if the proposed changes are adopted, the system would be better or worse in the years ahead.”
In my opinion it will be hard for any serious economic recovery and to restore trust in national government and the economic system until these problems improve and are fully explained so that Americans have real facts about health care.
The pet peeve that I have with mainstream news media, such as Fox News, CNN, Fox Business Channel and others, is how they blur or hide facts from viewers and conceal their opinion in newscasts. People who are not media conscious or savvy can’t differentiate between actual facts mixed with, for example, with Rupert Murdoch’s or Bill O’Reilly’s opinions. Over the past few years some news sources have taken a lot of heat from conscious viewers and media watchdogs for their unfair depictions of news, but it does not seem that mainstream news media network mind the negative criticism.
They continue to broadcast the news in their deceitful forms. This is why I do not watch certain networks. I’d rather watch, FOX 5, NBC, MY 9 News as well as NY1 on cable.
I also subscribe to many news channel pages on Facebook, so that as I socialize with my friends, I can receive up to the minute news updates right on my Facebook account from news sources such as ABC, Fox 5, NBC CW11 news and others. Millions find this to be a convenient feature because they all get to post their views and opinions right on the posted update feed ,and numerous other users can view the comments and opinions of their fellow citizens and think constructively about them and also have the opportunity to comment on matters as well themselves if they choose to do so.
Daniel Okrent’s article, A Few Points Along the Line Between News and Opinion, was very interesting although it was not related to the main topics (such as about how I learn about news in my neighborhood and the rest of the world). It described the mission of newspapers, such as the New York Times, which tend to silence or limit the input that the writers get to say. Most of the power and opinions stems from the editors. “Executive editor Bill Keller and editorial page editor Gail Collins run operations entirely separate from each other. They consciously, even self-consciously, avoid discussing politics or public issues. We never ever talk about news or the editorials, under any circumstances, ” Okrent wrote in 2005.
This statement also reveals choices made in for which information gets published rather than think about the interest of the general public. However, I found it interesting that there were a few writers who at least have some freedom to opine on the topics of their choice, and they are referred to as ragged-right.
Okrent also provides a surprising analysis of one issue: “The Times needs to be careful to label opinion and its many variants. The simple addition of a slug of type reading “commentary” (not unlike “news analysis,” a Times staple for nearly half a century) would be a productive step, when appropriate; so would the introduction of consistent design signals across the various section. You just have to make certain that your writers, and the editors who manage their work, are every bit as intellectually diverse as the readership you hope to attract.”
I really agree with his suggestion to help the Times fix the problem also problematic for other news sources, such has Fox News and CNN that either subconsciously or intentionally blur the lines between fact and opinion. Once this problem is tackled, the Times would gain more trust of its readers and critics.
I find it very interesting that Okrent would report negatively about the Times, especially being that he works there, but I guess that he is exposing it in order to get it to be more conscious of its practices in order to change for the better.