From: ant.mcwatt@ntlworld.com
Date: Sat Jul 17 2004 - 14:07:34 BST
Ant McWatt originally wrote July 15th 2004:
The Sun is as much a newspaper as a surfboard is a reliable means of trans-Atlantic transport. There’s no way the Sun could be perceived as a credible or seriously unbiased medium and certainly wouldn’t be acceptable in an academic context. You’d definitely fail a paper or an exam if you relied on a reference from this low quality propaganda rag to support an argument (other than as a negative example).
For your information Platt, the only British media references I have received from Pirsig have been the Guardian and the BBC – which are, despite their limitations, definitely the higher quality sources for UK news.
David H commented on this July 17th 2004:
Since when was an objective and by extension 'unbiased' attitude supported by the MOQ?
Ant McWatt comments:
David,
Thanks for pointing this out. Yes, you are quite correct to imply that the MOQ doesn’t support objectivity per se or recognise the existence of stand-alone 'unbiased' attitudes.
However, the term ‘objective’ in this context only appears in your e-mail (I avoid using this SOM term due to its various confusing and ambiguous connotations) and you misleadingly state ‘unbiased’ rather than ‘seriously unbiased’ as found in my original post. I therefore think your comment here is a bit disingenuous as your question should read:
‘Since when was a “seriously unbiased” attitude supported by the MOQ?”
The answer then becomes:
As the attempt to achieve an unbiased account of a state of affairs generally leads to higher quality intellectual statements (e.g. a diplomatic mission is more likely to succeed if it relies on minimally unbiased accounts of a foreign culture) then it is apparent that the MOQ does indeed support intellectual attitudes that are as unbiased as possible.
This is why News International controlled media groups (such as Sky “News” or the Sun) are perceived by the MOQ as those of lower quality and is no doubt partly why Pirsig has never referred me to any articles from these media sources. This is also why I referred Platt to the independent media links on my website and, to be fair to him, I note afterwards he used the Guardian in our recent discussion icw the NHS which certainly improved the credibility of his arguments. (I’ll address his comments in a separate post).
Finally, if the empirical content of my assertions icw with the Sun is inaccurate, I’d be interested to know of any academic text that employs this low quality propaganda rag to support an argument.
I bet you a free copy of my PhD that you can’t find such a reference!
Best wishes,
Anthony.
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