Daily Archives: June 27, 2003

Open Letter – sloppy media

Open letter to Associated Press, Martin Reynolds of the Gartner Group, and the Houston Chronicle.


James T. Campbell, Houston Chronicle Reader Representative, readerrep@chron.com
Scott Clark, Assistant Managing Editor, Business, edtgsc@chron.com
Conrad Bibens, Wire Editor – Business, conrad.bibens@chron.com
Martin Reynolds, (VP ?) Gartner Group, martin.reynolds@gartner.com
in lieu of an ombudsman contact on the AP web site…
Managing Editors, Associated Press, apme@ap.org
Edward Jones, President, Associated Press Managing Editors, edjones@freelancestar.com
Stuart Wilk, Vice President, Associated Press Managing Editors, swilk@dallasnews.com
General Contact Address, Associated Press, info@ap.org

There seems to be an unbalanced bias between two articles that ran in the Houston Chronicle’s business section this week and both of which came via the Associated Press.

They were both very small, wire articles and could have been shoved in to fill the gap of a few column inches. One was on Apple Computer, the other on Microsoft – certainly could be viewed as balancing the coverage. But they show signs of subtle bias and laziness in our media; small signs in small articles that reflect upon the whole. They reflect the media as a mouthpiece of the corporations. One has a partial quote that seems to be placed for maximum emotional effect. (Is there a need to keep the readers of a three inch column entertained in the last paragraph?)

Continue reading