Media on Tenet

James Joyner · Wednesday, March 10, 2004 · 3 Comments

Kevin Drum notes the amazing divergence of headlines on DCI Tenet’s testimony yesterday. Having heard much of the testimony while driving home yesterday, I must admit I too am rather confounded by the take most of these stories give. I have repeatedly had this experience when reading reports of events that I’ve heard live: the reporting almost never matches my own perceptions of what took place. Sometimes, they’re 180 degrees off.

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About James Joyner
James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. Follow James on Twitter.

Comments

Kevin Drum says:

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 at 12:50

I’m not sure there’s anything wrong with this, mind you. It’s just a story with a lot of different angles.

It’s usually pretty interesting to see how polls are handled too. Polls, of course, usually have at least a dozen interesting results among all the questions, but each reporter can only choose one to lead with. It’s kind of a Rorschach test in a way.

(And for bloggers, too, who tend to see bias whenever a reporter chooses a different poll result to highlight than they would have….)

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James Joyner says:

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 at 12:58

True enough. Not to mention the fact that headline writers isn’t usually the reporter.

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Kevin Drum says:

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 at 13:48

Yes, although in this case I was highlighting the lead, not the headline. That’s definitely under the reporter’s (and editor’s) control.

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