If the media is liberal...?

Question

I don't doubt that the media has a liberal bias. This has been proven as true. However, journalists are people whose job it is to find truth and report it. They go out in the world, see the blood, the guts, the joy, the tears, the evil, the good, and everything in between.

And these people are mostly liberals.

The conservative journalists are not the same. Most of them are pundits. Or worse, they're talk radio hosts that see little of the world other than their studios and whatever newspapers they read.

In short:

The media is liberal
BUT
Journalists seek out and report truth
SO
Liberalism in the media is based on truth

Let's see if any conservatives out there can make a salient argument against. It shouldn't be too hard if they think about it. But I doubt we'll see anything other than "you suck, we rule" types of posts.

Best answers will only be awarded to conservatives.

Blaming the liberalism on network bigwigs is false. The same liberal journalists write books and other publications overwhich they have creative control, and they also reflect a liberal bias.

mjk6886 - Read your own post. You haven't answered the question, you merely fell right into a AM talk radio rant. Do you always have such a problem focusing on the question at hand?

AnswerMan - I assume you meant to type SSDD.

Here's an answer that has eluded you - PROOFREADING

Answer 1

1) To quote Pilate, "What is truth?" Truth is that what we perceive as being factual, based on the set of assumptions and filters which we all have developed to look at the world. Only a truly unbiased observer could look at a situation and report only the facts, but no observer is ever truly unbiased because every observer filters information through his beliefs and assumptions. So, because a journalist declares something to be the "truth" means nothing if the journalist is liberal, because it is only truth-as-seen-through-a-liberal's-eyes. Same applies to conservatives. Which brings me to my second point.

2) Selection bias + cognative dissonance: to disassociate the effects of truth and liberalism, it would have to be known what percentage of new journalists or even existing journalists self-identify as liberals. If the going-out-into-the-field type of person tends to be a liberal instead of a conservative, then the type of information that they are going to be reporting on will tend to be information that fits into the liberal worldview. Information not fitting into that worldview will be ignored or disregarded (the cognative dissonance part).

I could probably think of more if it weren't 3:30am.

Answer 2

Most reporters do have a liberal bias but they are not under orders to report one way or another. Actually, It is better to think of it as an agenda rather than a bias.

What they do is individually go out and try to uncover stories that will further their agenda. So, if they think a story makes the Bush administration look bad they will look for as many angles of the story to keep it alive as long as possible.

If they see a story that makes the Bush administration look good they will try to bury the story or twist it to make it look bad.

Many of the techniques in use today by reporters are actually classic propaganda methods that were used so successfully by Pravda in the Soviet Union.

Every reporter has a list of "experts" who are just liberal hacks that are willing to be quoted. This allows the reporter to give the impression that an independent authority has moved the agenda along.

Push polls have become a favorite tool in the reporter’s arsenal. They are designed to steer public opinion not report it. They are always skewed to the left. Not only do they under sample republicans, many of the polling companies that conduct these polls actually maintain a list of liberals that are willing to identify themselves as Republicans.

I once worked with a guy that would brag about how many times he has been polled. He would also call talk shows and say, "I am a Republican and I voted for George Bush but ..." I'm sure you have heard that before.

Even though I do think there is a liberal bias in the news media, I don't think that it matters that much. You see the American people are not that stupid. They know when they are being lied to. All this liberal bias has not prevented the Republicans from gaining control of all three branches of the federal government. The public is quick to see through the liberal bias and that hurts the Dems big time.

Answer 3

Bad premise. Liberal journalists fail to report the truth, or at least the whole truth. They only report those facts that support their political bias, and omit or distort those facts that are inconvenient. So, as per the usual liberal logic, your premise is bad, but you continue to move forward as though you still had a point. And that self-imposed ignorance, with a self-fulfilling logic wrapped in a selfish sense of entitlement, is the basis for the liberal thought pattern.

So the next time the liberal media covers a second rate actress trying to prevent the sale of land by a rightful owner because squatters somehow claim an entitlement, wait for your "truth seeking" journalists to report the squatters answers to such questions as "Do you own the land?"; "Do you think you have the right to deprive the owner of his legal property?", "Why are you threatening the owner's life on local spanish radio?" or "Do you even have the legal right to be in this country, much less harass an American citizen?". Or perhaps the actress can be asked, while hanging in a tree like a racoon "Hey, (insert actress name here), since you have about 50 million dollars in your bank account, why don't you buy the land for 15 million and let these people use it for a farm? After all, isn't that what you expect the rightful owner to do" or how about "Are you going to pay for the expense of having the fire department pull you out of that tree?" or better yet, "Since you occupied the fire department in order to get attention, would you feel bad if someone in this community lost their life because a fire department that is already overworked were busy with you?"

Odd, how I never heard a liberal journalist seek out these truths.

I chose an easy one, that even a person pre-dispositioned to liberalism can comprehend the blatant failure, make that malfeasance, of the fourth estate as they defend their liberal position by selective reporting.

Answer 4

Sadly, there is a good deal of truth in what you say. However, there is one other truth, and it has more to do with legalities than cons. or lib.... many papers, tv stations, etc. are owned by liberals with their own agendas which would make it harder for a conservative to get a job if they let that side come out. however, I think that the reporting lately has been a bit more than just slanted, i barely heard a thing when they uncovered mass graves of kurds murdered by Hussein (proving genocide, and therefore, a legitimate reason to be there, with or w/out WMD)... to me, it was intentionally downplayed because that didn't fit with the liberal "we shouldn't be there" cry. So, what is reported in the liberal media is truth, agreed, but not the whole truth, and are we able to see more clearly wearing the glasses they WANT us to wear instead of the ones that let us see all?... but it is also true, that many of the known conservative personalities, are just that, personalities, and I don't trust them any more, and maybe less than, the liberal media due to their agendas. Great question, thanks.

Answer 5

You are correct, Liberalism in the media is BASED on truth. The movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou is based on the Odessey according to its credits and movie poster. If you've ever seen OH Brother you know very are few similarities. Our media can choose what they do and don't print and air. Often they do not print the entire story.
Best example I can think of this deals with our Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. When was the last time you heard a Soldier say he was proud of what he was doing and beleived what he was doing was right. Ever hear about anything good going on over there? The only time I have ever heard american soldiers say that they were doing good was on of all shows WWE RAW. A Wrestling show. They did a tour of afghanistan around christmas and showed interviews with soldiers. The soldiers told about clearing minefields near childrens playgrounds and building and staffing hospitals and Sending girls to school for the first time ever in that country. you won't hear about that on CNN. Only the death count for the day and a big story if an innocent civilian is injured because insurgents decide to engage in a firefight with american troops in a populated area.
The fact that the entire truth is not reported is driven into my head everytime I talk to one of my freinds who has returned from Iraq. Their stories sound nothing like the ones told on the news. They tell stories about how the Iraqi people often cheer them and are very freindly to them and treat them as heros. You don't see that on CNN.

Answer 6

there are two sides to rvery truth.journalists do report the truth they generally do however interject left leaning views.they sometimes do not even report on somewhat minor stories that go against thier belief.they will however report on the slightest misstep by anyone who is conservative.you make it sound as though just the facts are reported that is not always the case.whatever happened to responsable journalism?reporting top secret info,sensative military info or spy programs used to put people in jail.journalists take no reponsability for thier actions at all do you think terrorists in this country changed their habits once they found out about the domestic spy program?of course they didi do not agree with this program ,but if i never found out about it my life would still be the same.if terrorists could somehow have been detected using the spy program,but then skirted that system because of irresponsable reporting and we get attacked by those same people that will be bushs fault to

Answer 7

Sorry it's not that way! Journalists my seek out the truth, but don't always report the truth. Because the liberal media won't let them. And everyone knows liberalism is one sided to the left, they will never report anything about the right side.

Answer 8

what the Journalists see means jack squat. its up to the big wigs ehre to make the decision on what is seen. and from what i have seen the big wigs at fox (conservative) and all the others (loberals) i am pretty sure we dont even know 20% of the truth. i trust Fox news but i question most of what they say.
so i think what you said should be this

Liberal Reporter sees battle=sends tape which shows 1 us soldier wounded all terrorists killed and 1 child injured= (big wigs edit on liberal media) innocent child injured in US firefight or (conservatice big wigs edit) US soldiers in fire fight one wounded.

nether one says the whole story. the wounded soldier and the child sould both be said not one or the other. so in reality what the reporter says means jack squat

Answer 9

Media is driven by money - what ever makes the most, gets the biggest audience, and can still be argued as 'the truth' is what they air

Answer 10

lol, round about simplification, but ok. Good point.