A personal experience with bias

According to a recent Zogby poll, Americans believe media bias is alive and well. Almost 2 out of 3, or 64 percent, say the media lean left.

Bias, if it exists, could be a deliberate attempt to slant the news toward liberal views. But it may also be the result of reporter omissions (intentional or otherwise) of pertinent facts.

This perception is really nothing new. My father, Dr. Louis S. Hansen, was vice chairman of the Division of Forensic Pathology, School of Medicine, at the University of California, San Francisco. He was considered a world authority on diseases of the mouth, especially oral cancer. This background often led to him being called as an expert witness in civil litigation.

One of his most famous trials took place in 1986 in Oklahoma City. The case involved a 19-year-old youth named Sean Marsee, who had died from cancer of the tongue. His mother sued the U.S. Tobacco Company, claiming her son's death was a result of using snuff.

My father testified for the tobacco company, stating that the type of cancer this young man had was not caused by "snuff dipping." Hansen told the jurors that based on age, length of time and location of the tumor, Marsee's disease did not fit the pattern of "snuff dippers carcinoma." He also stated that people who have this type of cancer are between the ages of 60 and 80 years old and have used snuff for a minimum of 30 years. He testified that these people have tumors between the cheek and tongue where the product is usually held.

Dr. Hansen said that snuff-dippers carcinoma is usually a mild form of cancer and responds well to treatment. Dad went on to say that was not true in Sean's case. His type of cancer is fast growing and one that appears in childhood or early in adult life.

The jury took less than 6 hours to find the U.S. Tobacco Co. had no liability in Marsee's death. My father later told me that if an attorney wanted to make a case for cancer and tobacco, "he couldn't have picked a worse one." The story was followed nationally and picked up by several newspapers. It also found a place on "60 Minutes" and in Readers Digest.

Whether the public got the full story or not depended upon what media outlet was used. The most accurate and complete accounts were found in Southern newspapers. For example, the Dallas Morning News, via an Associated Press story by Judy Gibbs, reported the trial evidence, including testimony by University of Texas professor Dr. John Helfrick, who agreed with Hansen's conclusions.

On the other hand, a Washington Post story, also picked up by The Sacramento Bee, on June 21, 1986, failed to mention any of the specific facts presented at trial by the two professors. Instead, comments were made such as " ... the tobacco industry has never lost or settled a product-liability lawsuit," and "Two of the four women jurors cried ... "

Another statement was: " ... the jury had no difficulty agreeing that snuff had not been shown to cause oral cancer, while also agreeing that, in isolation, the potent carcinogens that snuff contains ... cause cancer in laboratory animals." The story went on to mention how the vice president for the company's research and development division had "stonewalled," and that "serious issues" could raise an appeal.

Were the facts in the Washington Post story accurate? Yes. Did the writer leave out important information as to how the jury reached its conclusion? Yes. Did the story lead the reader to believe the jury may have had erred in its decision — or that justice had not been served? You be the judge.

Perhaps Mark Twain was correct when he said, "If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're misinformed."

Steve Hansen is a Lodi writer and satirist.

Reader Feedback

dyan wrote on Apr 8, 2009 5:50 PM:

" Will do. "

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Cogito wrote on Apr 8, 2009 8:29 AM:

" dyan, if you liked "Bias", you've got to read "Arrogance". More stories of when Bernie worked for the msm, and how they distort, and decide, what we see. "

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dyan wrote on Apr 8, 2009 8:11 AM:

" In my opinion, KCRA has become an expert at omissions when the want to slant a story. "

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dyan wrote on Apr 8, 2009 8:10 AM:

" Bernie Goldberg in his book "Bias" agrees that "omission" is the primary source of newspaper bias. "

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Cogito wrote on Apr 8, 2009 7:59 AM:

" Scuse me, that's "Erwin" not "Irwin". "

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Cogito wrote on Apr 8, 2009 7:54 AM:

" I remember being in high school when the McDonald Island gas well fire happened. My step-father was a gas well mechanic for PG&E. PG&Es employees were instructed to be tight lipped to the media. Every night my step dad would come home from work and get a good chuckle from the newspaper. Their daily accounts of what was happening there were mostly fairy tales. The reporters would hang out at the resort bar across the river from the island, because that's where many workers would stop for a cold one after their shift. My step dad figured there were either guys telling them tall tales, or they were frustrated by the lack of cooperation, and just made stuff up. Remember Diana Greigo Irwin from the Bee? She got busted making up people and quotes to reinforce certain liberal viewpoints in the community. It cost her her job, and her reputation. "

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