“PBS NewsHour” (1975- ) is the evening news show on PBS, America’s public (tax-supported) television network. The show’s name has changed over the years:
- 1975: The Robert MacNeil Report
- 1975: The MacNeil/Lehrer Report
- 1983: The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour
- 1995: The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
- 2009: PBS NewsHour
The show grew out of MacNeil and Lehrer’s award-winning reporting on the Watergate hearings in 1973.
Ownership: the “NewsHour” is privately owned, mostly by Liberty Media, which in turn is mostly owned by John Malone, a right-wing American businessman.
Follow the money: while it gets money from the government and viewer donations, it also gets money from banks, agribusiness, insurance companies, foundations and others. They do not place ads, but their names and logos do appear at the beginning and the end of each show.
News sources: like most of the American press it gets most of its news from government and business. But PBS was supposed to be different. According to the government act that created it in 1967, it was to:
provide a voice for groups in the community that may be otherwise unheard … help us see America whole, in all its diversity.
Here is what America looks like in terms of race and ethnicity:
- 67% white
- 15% Hispanic
- 12% black
- 6% other
Here is what it looks like on the “NewsHour”:
- 82% white
- 1% Hispanic
- 11% black
- 6% other
That 1% Hispanic comes at a time when Arizona is passing laws against them.
And that 11% black looks pretty good – but half of it is President Obama.
In stories on crime, however, America is no longer 82% white but, suddenly, 64%.
Among live guests, 55% are Republicans – even in 2010 with the Democrats in power. Among those from think tanks, 80% are right-wing.
For every 100 businessmen it shows only 3 from labour.
And it gets worse.
In April and May 2010 when they covered the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico it took two weeks before we heard from an environmentalist.
During the same period they covered the war in Afghanistan. Most Americans are against the war and Obama’s own men are badly split. But on the “NewsHour” nothing is said against the war – just on how well it is being fought. And even on that question they avoided the most damning statements made by General McChrystal in his interview with the Rolling Stones.
On the issue of Israel and the Palestinians, in May and June 2010 they showed 11 Israelis but only two Palestinians.
In June when Israel broke international law by boarding Turkish ships in international waters and started shooting and killing civilians, the “NewsHour” brought on two legal experts: one defended Israel, the other merely said Israel should have waited till the ships landed in Gaza.
Even though some of its guests were clearly against the whole idea of Israel cutting off Gaza from the rest of mankind, the “NewsHour” never presented those opinions.
Because it is an hour long it can and does rise above the sound-bite news common on television, even on cable news, but it does not allow enough time to fairly present views beyond those of well-to-do white Americans.
See also:
“And that 11% black looks pretty good – but half of it is President Obama.”
So then I guess that would make it really ~5.5 percent black? 🙂
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Oh, sorry, I meant ~3 percent.
How sad!
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No, 5.5% is right, which is close to the 6% I gave here:
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You’re right, my brain is not working today.
How funny that it fits with your last idea.
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And that 11% black looks pretty good – but half of it is President Obama.
You made me smile here. Not because what you wrote was funny or laughable, but you worded it perfectly.
Also, it’s bad that they don’t talk about that horrible Arizona law. I admit I don’t know much about it, but from what I’ve read, it’s a bad thing and people should talk about it. (People online DO talk about it, but I am not sure about the media).
As for Gaza war… Not sure what to say about it. I was unaware US media present one-dimensional image of the war (though I am not surprised).
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I do recall peeking at PBS news as a kid and wondering about all the sponsorships from banks, insurance co., etc. (the sound of money). I really don’t get to watch much PBS Newshour, but after seeing these stats, It does make you wonder. I guess the only reason I prefer PBS is due to all the stress (advertising) through the MSM style of programming.
Then again, like you mentioned with “well-to-do-Americans”, you’ll get the slight feeling that they don’t exactly have you & me in mind…even though that money looks good!
O.o
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about the israel-palestine war. although pbs always falls on the side of israel, they usually present a more detailed story than the popular media–which rarely even mentions the palestinians. unless it’s to chastise them for not just laying down & playing dead already.
but my favorite show on pbs is charlie rose.
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It’s not just The News Hour; PBS and NPR as a whole have both become a space for Whites and a place where People of Color are marginalized.
I hate that PBS/ NPR are partly funded by tax dollars. They have, in my opinion, purposely ignored their mandate for diversity.
I hope that some person in Congress will move to defund them both.
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Val,
Congress has been moving for years to defund PBS. That’s why there is more corporate sponsorship. If people really want public broadcasting they have to write the checks themselves. The money they get from congress barely pays the electric bill, more than $50,000 a day.
I haven’t watched the News Hour in sometime, but I am sure it is much different than it was 20 years ago, in which I thought the reporting was fair.
In the broadcast market I live in, there are several PBS stations, one which has a liberal bent and their broadcast news comes from a lot of different countries; China, Korea, Germany, France, Greece, the BBC and there may be a few other countries. We also have a few Spanish broadcast stations that feature local news. I think it is quite possible to figure what is going on in the world here.
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@Hathor
I live in a market with multiple PBS stations too. There are five. One of them only shows Brit programs and another only shows programs of interest to senior citizens.
There is one however that has great news broadcasts from around the world such as Al Jazeera, France 24, RT, Nhk, etc. I really like watching these broadcasts.
But the thing that all of these stations have in common is that non-White voices are still marginalized.
I heard that the Republicans are in an uproar about Juan Williams be fired and are promising to defund PBS/ NPR if they take over in November. So it’s weird for me to think that I actually agree with the Republicans on something.
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Val,
It is sort of ironic for them to call for defunding now, since 1980 they have called for the end of public tv by stating that cable and other media are filling the need for diversity of ideas and programming.
Even though this post has broken down the support of PBS, some people still think it is a bastion of liberalism. As for POC, I think there was better representation some years ago. I think partly because both McNeil and Lehrer were more actively involved in the production. One of the Black correspondents has been actively involved in the civil rights movement. Juan Williams had been involved in the development of Eye on the Prize, but lately I think has views have been counter productive to Black people. Not by his views per se, but how his views fit snugly into an agenda on the right that constantly Black bash. If you would listen to some; there is no Black middle class, not any that live in suburbia, that all Black males are thugs, Blacks don’t get good educations or
speak standard English and that every Black wants and gets welfare.
You may think that Abagond’s post are sometimes over the top, but in these times race politics is a current as ever. I really don’t concern myself about whether the media is being responsive or representing my point of view. I worry when the media is perpetrating racism. It may be under the guise of conservatism, tax issues, government programs, but most of that is just code that they would be better off without brown and Black people.
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I remember from my years in the US in the early nineties (pre-internet) that PBS news were the only ones that were fairly within journalistic objectivity in a global context. I talked to my family and friends in Europe on the phone regularly, so I had a direct comparison back then.
Although it’s a shame how their quality is apparently going down I would think PBS is the least worrying in the US. I’m not informed about their ratings but I would guess they are quite low compared to the private giants.
I think the real culprit are the ones with an agenda that goes way beyond underrepresentation. The ones that use minorities to promote their twisted agendas. I would tell the journalists of black and other minority backgrounds that they work for the wrong channel if they work here:
Fox “News”
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2479786/glenn_becks_top_ten_dumbest_quotes.html?cat=9
http://www.chasingevil.org/2010/10/oreillys-racist-remarks.html
And then this individual. For us outsiders in the allegedly “commie” world it sounds like real life satire. The number of people who listen to his nonsense is already staggering but in fact the real shocker is – how many think like that.
http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mccalla/top-10-racist-limbaugh-quotes/
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Yes, horrible show, that, nothing but pablum for geriatric pearl-clutchers.
Aba, have you done a post on Amy G’s Democracy Now? It’s real journalism.
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PBS NewsHour « Abagond…
Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……
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LOL @ Natasha W
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Not every white person walks through life, making sure the exact percent is equated to everything.
The best person should get the job, regardless of all other factors. You don’t understand that your same rationalization will be used by moronic whites when they are the minority.
“On the issue of Israel and the Palestinians, in May and June 2010 they showed 11 Israelis but only two Palestinians.”
DUH, it’s US policy to support Israel, and it’s a PUBLIC news station. What is so hard to understand?
Stop bean counting and start being real. If your logic was applied to voting, Obama would get 12% of the votes.
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Logic:
You need to read my posts a little more carefully instead of just shooting off your mouth based on your stereotype of my point of view.
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emphasis mine
– Amusing Ourselves to Death ,Neil Postman 1985
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