The fair truth about fairness

“The general perception of national media is right along the same lines of attorneys and used car salesmen,” Union University Associate Professor of Communications Arts Steve Beverly said. “Most of the national surveys show there is a much more favorable perception of the local media as opposed to national media because there is a general perception that this is our media. This is ours.”
Beverly said the purest view of media has deteriorated and he does not believe it will regain that position, as a result, coverage of events such as national elections and even local and state elections is typically biased toward one side or the other.
“We will never get back to the age of ‘The Most Trusted Man in America’ Walter Cronkite,” Beverly said. “Even Cronkite was certainly left of center on his views but he continually did a job of broadcasting it right down the middle and you truly didn’t know where he stood.”
However, Beverly said the challenges fall even to local media to ‘cut it down the middle’ and be unbiased in this culture of media and reporting.
“There are certain people in the local level that try to cut it down the middle but it’s very difficult to do,” Beverly said. “It’s an awful lot harder today than it used to be.