Frivolous & Bollixed

by David Giacalone

David Giacalone -- formerly known as ethicalEsq and Prof. Yabut -- can now be found at f/k/a . . ., which features "one-breath poetry and punditry with haikuEsq." Currently retired, David spent ten years at the FTC and another decade doing divorce mediation and family law.--Ed.

Are there any lawyers (or adults) over at MoveOn.org?  The politically-active, proudly biased group has formally asked the Federal Trade Commission to declare the Fox News slogan "fair and balanced" to be unlawfully deceptive. [see WorldNetDaily]  Along with filing a petition, MoveOn has launched a letter-writing campaign.  There's just one big problem: their legal claim has no legal precedent nor merit. Very few fair or balanced persons actually believe Fox's slogan.  But, as noted by its Chairman, Timothy J. Muris, such mottoes and puffery -- especially when done by a news organization -- are simply not within the FTC concept of deception (see text at fn. 42).

So, what's the point, MoveOn?  Is having a whiney temper tantrum good politics?  Is it going to win you any votes, or convince Fox's audience to switch channels or listen more critically?  Do you have so much Soros money that you can waste it on frivolous media circuses?  

This little publicity stunt has, nonetheless, left me wondering just how truthful newspaper and media slogans are in general.  With a little Googling, I located a website that lists the mottoes of many American newspapers.  The Newspaper Mottoes webpage is compiled by Loyola University (N.O.) communications professor Larry Lorenz.  Here are a small selection of the mottoes listed, categorized (by me) for your convenience (and entertainment).  Just how many of these slogans do you think would pass muster under a truthfulness and substantiation test?

Plain Old Puffery:

• World's Greatest Newspaper --Chicago Tribune
• America's Most Colorful Newspaper --Burlington (Vt.) Free Press
• An Independent Democratic Newspaper Of The First Class Unchallenged In Its Field --The Longview (Tex.) Daily News
• Florida's Most Complete Newspaper --The Miami Herald

Say What?

• A Fearless And Wide-Awake Democratic Newspaper --The (Alexandria, La.) Weekly Town Talk
• Haec olim meminisse juvabit [It will profit us to remember these things in the future. Virgil.] --Niles' Weekly Register
• Covers Dixie Like The Dew--The Atlanta Journal
• The Gimlet -- It Bores In.--(Brownsville, Ky.) Edmonson News
• Light For All --The (Baltimore) Sun 
• Give light and the people will find their own way. -- Scripps-Howard newspapers 

 

Sez You:

• All the news that's fit to print -- New York Times
• The World Is Governed Too Much --The Globe
• A Constructive Force In The Community --San Antonio (Texas) Light
• Our Country Is The World--Our Countrymen Are Mankind --The Liberator
• A Leader In The Growth And Development Of Florida And The South For x Years --The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union
• A Weekly Newspaper for the Mutual Benefit of Ourselves, Colleton and Beaufort Districts and Mankind Generally. --Colleton and Beaufort (S.C.) Sun

 

BFD

• The Only Evening Newspaper in St. Louis With the Associated Press News Service --St.Louis Post-Dispatch
• The Hometown Newspaper Of The [NY] Southern Tier --The (Binghamton, N.Y) Evening Press
• Today's News Today --Schenectady (N.Y.) Union-Star

 

Yeah, Sure:

• One of America's Great Newspapers--In One of America's Great Cities --The Toledo Blade
• Open to all Parties--but influenced by none --The (Cincinnati) Centinel of the North-Western Territory

It's not only American newspapers that choose slogans that might be difficult to prove.  A webpage on Early Toronto Newspapers explains, for example, that: "The Morning Sun and Toronto Transcript  . . . originally boasted of the 'absence of all political and religious discussion'.  . . .  In July 1844, its name was changed to the Toronto Star, with the motto 'We shine alike for all.'"  The Star, however, was a piker when it came to slogans.  In 1849, the Provincial Telegraph and Commercial and Mechanical Intelligencer was founded by one Henry C. Grant, with the motto "Ours is no party jar".  According to the webpage commentary, "Its politics consisted of condemnation of party animosity (and incidentally of all existing parties) and its pride was news by telegraph."

We can't cover this topic A-Z [applause], but I'd like to suggest two African media powerhouses for scrutiny by MoveOn (and perhaps the World Court).  They are both in Zambia: 

The Post  -- "The paper that digs deeper"

Zambia Daily Mail -- "We serve the country without fear or favour"

It's a close and important election.  Isn't it nice that someone cares enough to keep our mastheads honest?

Comments

[David Giacalone]

What a great feature and auspicious start! [;-)] What a great Host!

Thanks for giving me a crack at a big-time audience. For an example of folks taking the "fair and balanced" motto way too seriously, see Prof. Lessig. It seems to me that, given a choice of sources, most people choose ones that tell them what they want to hear -- and then convince themselves it's fair and balanced (or doesn't need to be).

[Abnu]

Nice post, David. This post is just the sort of thing we like to see over at Wordlab. So, this is just a brief note to let you and Evan know I really enjoyed it, and to spam this comment thread with a link to our website.

Don't let the paucity of comments fool you. That indicates you're probably right on. If you want lots of comments, you have to do what Evan often does--say something completely wrong. ;-)

[David Giacalone]

There was an interesting segment on the PBS News Hour this evening (Aug. 3, 200)called News Divisions, which describes a new Pew Research Center survey that shows that more and more Americans are choosing their news sources based on the political and ideological leanings.

"TERENCE SMITH: And a new survey has found that many people-43 percent of conservatives and a third of liberals and moderates -- choose their news sources based on their politics.

Here are a few more exerpts.

ANDREW KOHUT: It's part and parcel of the more intense political views and partisan views that the American public has this year. Republicans and Democrats really think differently about a broad range of issues.

TERENCE SMITH: Kohut worries that the line between straight news and opinion is becoming more and more blurred.

ANDREW KOHUT: The danger is that the news business will see this as good business and we will get to a marketing and a positioning of news where we are getting away from the model of objective nonpartisan news to these little cliques, these little niches of Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative news.

ANDREW KOHUT: I think the risk here is that people will go into their separate corners and begin to look at news and information from their own point of view.

TERENCE SMITH: This growing correlation between partisanship and news choices is a surprising one, and an important development.

One of the poll's major findings is that many Republicans tend to prefer the Fox News Channel, while many Democrats prefer CNN.

And Republicans, as a group, are unhappy with their options.

None of this suggests that slogans like "Fair and Balanced" are given much weight by the audience.