A Sinester Conspiracy...
This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but it turns out the press--at least according to an informal poll--leans heavily to the left. The fact that liberals will try sometimes to argue with a straight face that the press is actually biased towards conservatives proves they have a difficult time coping with the facts. Often they cry out "Oh, well what about Fox News?" as though Fox News is part of the vast right wing conspiracy. Actually, it's just that Fox isn't as liberal as the other networks, and so by comparison they stand out as more conservative.
It's not that I'm bothered by the fact that far more journalists are liberal than are conservative. If all journalist were truly objective and balanced in their presentation of the news--if all journalists were actually fair in their assessment of any given situation or issue--then I wouldn't be able to care less about how many of them will vote for Kerry over Bush. But the fact is that mainstream journalists, on the whole, drive their political agenda in some way in their coverage of the news. Some (like Mike Wallace or Dan Rather) are fairly obvious in their bias. Other times, the bias is a lot more subtle. It's giving 4 minutes of coverage to Kerry before the 2 minute spot on Bush. It's covering a Bush campaign rally by talking about the Kerry protesters in attendance. The worst part is that most Americans are oblivious not only to this slant but to the influence it has on them.
It's not that I'm bothered by the fact that far more journalists are liberal than are conservative. If all journalist were truly objective and balanced in their presentation of the news--if all journalists were actually fair in their assessment of any given situation or issue--then I wouldn't be able to care less about how many of them will vote for Kerry over Bush. But the fact is that mainstream journalists, on the whole, drive their political agenda in some way in their coverage of the news. Some (like Mike Wallace or Dan Rather) are fairly obvious in their bias. Other times, the bias is a lot more subtle. It's giving 4 minutes of coverage to Kerry before the 2 minute spot on Bush. It's covering a Bush campaign rally by talking about the Kerry protesters in attendance. The worst part is that most Americans are oblivious not only to this slant but to the influence it has on them.
3 Comments:
In deference to full disclosure, though, it's worth noting that the article you linked itself has an agenda in reporting that the media has an agenda, and also that it makes broad generalizations based on a limited sample.
Would you be shocked that reporters covering an Ole Miss game, for example, tended to have stronger feelings about Ole Miss than the public at large? Or that reporters covering spaceflight tended to be more interested in spaceflight than the overall population?
Not saying that their conclusions are incorrect, necessarily, just saying that it's pretty easy to shoot holes in how the support for that conclusion.
John Tierney, the guy who conducted the informal survey was on O'Reilly last night. He wouldn't really concede that the press has a left wing agenda. He kept pointing to the fact that in his little sample, more journalist would prefer a Bush administration when it comes to covering the news. Thinking more about this thing, it doesn't seem that unlikely that Tierney made the obvious assumption that his survey would show a strong bias towards Kerry but made a point to ask questions that would help reveal an honest, objective side to the journalist covering politics.
And that's the basic problem here. There have been tons of polls over the years showing a liberal slant to journalists, and there have been plenty showing that journalists are all completely objective.
It basically just comes down to what the pollster wants the study to show--the polls that show a liberal slant tend to be by conservative or religious groups, while the ones that show objectivity tend be by media groups.
Not really anything surprising there.
The truth, I'm sure, is somewhere in the middle. It wouldn't surprise me to have it confirmed that a majority of journalists tend to be left-leaning. And, there are plenty of the more visible talking heads that let their views affect their presentation.
However, there are also LOTS of average, in-the-field reporters who don't work to serve their personal biases (without trying to delve too deeply into the tricky issue of journalistic objectivity).
The biggest problem, IMHO, is that too many people believe that watching television will actually help you understand the news.
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