How does Indiana University spell "television news"? Easy: "C-N-N"

This'll knock your head back. Check out this study asserting that television news covered the Iraq War objectively. No, that's not the surprising part. The surprising part is how the researchers define "television news":

A new Indiana University study of television news reporting by those embedded with U.S. troops in the early days of the Iraq War found the majority of the reporting was objective.

The study, which appears in the upcoming 50th anniversary edition of the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, revealed "that while embedded reporters described events in very personal ways, their reports were not slanted in favor of Allied forces as a result," according to a summary of the report.

"They found that embedded reporters were more likely to use first-person singular pronouns -- such as "I and "me" -- but added that the context of their reports suggests they were not aligning themselves with troops," the report said. "Non-embedded reporters were actually more likely to use the broad-ranged 'we' than embedded reporters, who never used it," they wrote in their paper, "The 'I' of Embedded Reporting: An Analysis of CNN Coverage of the 'Shock and Awe' Campaign."

Ok, interesting study, but if you're like me, right about now you'd be wondering, well, why did Indiana University just study CNN like it was the only news network covering the war? Well, read on:

CNN was chosen because it is "generally perceived to be more objective than Fox and MSNBC, including its attempts to bring different viewpoints to viewers."

Oh, I see. "Generally perceived." Now that's some highly scientific methodology. Last time I checked, credible studies of ANYTHING are supposed to be based on fact, not perception. The basis of this study would be almost too dumb to criticize, but the fact that it's getting some play and apparently being taken seriously by Editor & Publisher makes it necessary.

So here's the real takeaway of the study: parents, don't send your kids to Indiana University--because with all the lame, half-baked perceptions being treated as fact at its graduate school, astrology camp would be a more cost-efficient alternative.

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