Political Bias In The Media

A Brief Example Of Media Bias
Mainstream media is defined as those stations or papers that have a sizable readership. In this example we look at an article on the front page of USA Today.

Is Mainstream Media Fair and Balanced?
How often, if ever, have you heard or read the term “ultraliberal”? I don't think I've ever heard or read it. You'll hear and see the term “ultraconservative” a lot, but not “ultraliberal”—even though there are plenty of ultraliberals. Another widely used labeling term is “activist.” If people are working to block a shopping center from being built or campaigning against Wal-Mart, they are called “activists.” Of course, what the term “activist” means is liberal. But while conservatives are called conservatives by the media, liberals are “activists.”

What Is Known About Media Bias?
The old newspaper motto "if it bleeds, it leads" shows one kind of bias: The bias of negative news. Read more about that by following the link below (Artificially Induced Helplessness). But is there another kind of bias in the media? Check out some of the findings.

Artificially Induced Helplessness
Most television news leaves the viewer depressed and anxious. Just by the nature of the media, with no pernicious or malicious intent on the part of journalists or reporters, our impression while we are being informed is that there's nothing we can do about what we are seeing.

NewsBusters.org
This site is devoted to bias in mainstream media.

An Illustrative Example of Widespread Media Bias
People are usually surprised to learn that guns are used defensively by private citizens in the U.S. from 1.5 to 3.4 million times a year, at least three times more frequently than guns are used to commit crimes. A question I hear repeatedly is: "If defensive gun use occurs so often, why haven't I ever heard of even one story?"

Weapons Of Mass Distortion
Learn how writers for mainstream newsmedia get away with distorting the news with a liberal bias while making themselves appear unbiased. A facinating read.

Media Meltdown
Never before have Americans had the chance to watch the establishment media while also seeing events unfold for themselves, live, on television. Our collective understanding of the dissonance between the two is breeding a distrust of the major news organs that will likely long outlast this war.

Liberal Media Evidence
The argument over whether the national press is dominated by liberals is over. Since 1962, there have been 11 surveys of the media that sought the political views of hundreds of journalists. In 1971, they were 53 percent liberal, 17 percent conservative. In a 1976 survey of the Washington press corps, it was 59 percent liberal, 18 percent conservative. A 1985 poll of 3,200 reporters found them to be self-identified as 55 percent liberal, 17 percent conservative. In 1996, another survey of Washington journalists pegged the breakdown as 61 percent liberal, 9 percent conservative. Now, the new study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found the national media to be 34 percent liberal and 7 percent conservative.

The Liberal Assault On Freedom Of Speech
America has less freedom of speech today than it has ever had in its history. Yet it is widely believed that it has more. Liberal law professor Archibald Cox has written: “The body of law presently defining First Amendment liberties” grew out of a “continual expansion of individual freedom of expression.” Conservative constitutional scholar Walter Berns agrees: “Legally we enjoy a greater liberty [of speech] than ever before in our history.” Both are wrong.

Not just the media:

A recent national survey of 1000 acedemics found that for every Republican professor on college campuses, there are SEVEN Democratic professors. This same survey was done thirty years ago and the ratio was only 3 or 4 to 1. In other words, the liberal bias in college is getting worse.

Source: The New York Times (a left-leaning newspaper)
If you don't think the New York Times leans to the left,
read Weapons of Mass Distortion

Liberal media? I'm shocked!
A new survey by the Pew Research Center says journalists have political and ideological leanings more liberal than those of the general public. In response to the survey, some argue that personal social and political views make no difference if a reporter plays the story straight. Well, yes. But nearly half of those polled told Pew that journalists too often let their ideological views color their work.

The Al Jazeera Effect
Those who have demonstrated a willingness to kill women and children have successfully blamed the Coalition for inhumane acts, while the Coalition has suffered increased casualties in its attempt to be more humane. How does this happen?

Why This Iraqi Citizen Is Angry At U.S. Media
This is a blog of Mohammed, who was interviewed by USA Today. He feels that the way the media jumps on everything negative, it inadvertently supports the efforts of terrorists. Read through to his closing comments. Posted May 16, 2004.

A Way To Help Fight Media Bias
Resources and articles, including a free email newsletter.

Noted in The Week Magazine:

"The nation's newspapers leaned in favor of Kerry, with 30 newspapers endorsing him thus far. Seventeen newspapers have endorsed the president."

Since Bush won the reelection, this means the newspapers did not represent the population. They represented a disproportional bias toward the liberal.

How The Media Cheats
A firsthand account of how the media selects and distorts what happens, giving an overly liberal cast to events.

Occupied by Arab Rage
Recent media coverage focuses on Palestinian emotion, ignoring the altogether rational process at work.

Extreme Media Bias: Al-Jazeera
"I have a distinctly checkered history with Al-Jazeera. As long ago as August 1998, I flew to London to appear on one of its shows, which I found responsible and interesting. But since then, the channel has gone wild. There was the occasion a year ago when I walked off the set before saying a word..."

"But aren't there also a lot of
conservative news programs?"

This is a question we are often asked. Liberals look around and it appears to them that the media in general is slanted to the right. After all, Fox News has gained popularity. But in the big scheme of things, it is a spit in the ocean. Fox News has 1.3 million nightly viewers. The liberally-slanted news on NBC has 8.9 million. ABC and CBS are also slanted to the left and have 8.2 million and 6.5 million nightly viewers respectively. The same pattern holds with conservative and liberal newspapers.

Maybe the conservative media is so noticeable because for so long most of the news media has been biased to the left, so the liberal bias seems mainstream.