US media biased, US journalist says

[Naveed Yaseen]

Amy Herdy, an American journalist who is visiting Pakistan, has grudgingly accepted the fact that despite claiming media freedom the western and US media is biased and it creates and spreads news that promotes their agenda.

Herdy is associated with The Dart Society, which is a nonprofit organization of journalists who advance the compassionate and ethical coverage of trauma, conflict and social injustice.

Her confession came while she was replying to questions from the local journalists after speaking on the “Trauma Reporting in Pakistan” at Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Thursday. She advised the journalists to be balanced in reporting and keep their personal feelings and ideological biases at the check. “It should also be kept in mind that while reporting you are humans first then the reporters. It means you must have the feeling and compassion though reporting the events dispassionately”, she suggested.

She tried to dodge a question about the US and Western media bias but the journalists insisted upon having an answer from her. She expressed her ignorance about the fact that Lancet Medical Journal had published the report that 655,000 people had been killed during US occupation of Iraq and did not know how many US newspapers had lifted that news.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=177665