media maven / By Marcy Burstiner

Overbalanced

(April 5, 2007)  In the cardinal rules of journalism, balance ranks high. But it is a difficult thing for a reporter to achieve. Often that’s because in trying to get two sides to a story - or better yet, all sides to a story - a reporter risks giving too much weight to representatives of one side, given how representative that opinion is of the general public.

There are a number of ways to tilt the balance - the number and diversity of people quoted, the amount of words devoted to each side, whether one side is explained first in a story while another is buried, and whether the sources sought for one side are more articulate and/or credible than those sought for the other.

Consider coverage of AB 374, a bill working its way through the state legislature that would set rules by which doctors could help terminally ill patients end their lives. Since our assemblyperson, Patty Berg, is one of the bill’s co-sponsors, reporters here have a much-needed “local angle.” But it’s of interest to people throughout the state, since if enacted it will make California only the second state in the country to allow terminally ill people to end their own lives.

The Eureka Reporter twice devoted stories - one with a front page, five-column banner headline, above the fold - to a group demonstrating in opposition. The Times-Standardran an editorial that supported the bill, saying it came down to a matter of choice. Both papers focused on the controversial aspects of the story - people adamantly for against those adamantly against.

The T-S editorial called the topic “an emotional and very sensitive issue.” The paper also ran a long, front-page MediaNews wire feature that called the debate “a topic so controversial that experts agree there’s not even a neutral term to describe it.” The Reporter likened it to a revival of the abortion debate.

Yet each paper also noted in just about every story, that numerous polls show that some 70 percent of Californians support the measure. To me, that says that this issue, while arguably emotional, isn’t all that controversial. Support for it is overwhelming. That’s certainly not the sense you get from the Reporter stories. One story about a protest outside Berg’s office quoted three people who protested and two reps from Berg’s office, framing the issue as Berg against the people. The Times-Standard ran a similar story.

In another Eureka Reporter story headlined “Democratic lawmakers try again to pass assisted-suicide bill,” ostensibly about support from Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, focused the first 256 words on support for the measure, but devoted the next 410 words to opposition; it quoted four opponents - a woman who runs a center for independent living, an in-home care provider, the head of the California Catholic Conference, a Republican assemblyman from La Mesa - and led the section this way: “Opponents include the California Medical Association, certain religious organizations and groups advocating for seniors, the poor and the disabled.”

In this way, the story framed the debate as Democratic lawmakers versus not only Republican lawmakers but also all doctors, religious people, and old, poor and disabled folks.

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