If the Media is biased, is it really balanced between liberal and conservative?

Question

1. Is the media really biased?
2. The cons have fox, Rush, the evangelical right, Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter is an executive with AOl, which is owned by liberal time warrner, a sister comapny of cnn!
3. is the media more onclined to favor the position of their sponcers
4. is the media designed to report stories that boost the ratings rahter than taking a political stance?

Answer 1

The media is just like politicians running for office.
The one with the money gets the attention. pure and simple.

Answer 2

The whole myth of the liberal media bias was invented in the 60s and 70s when far-right nuts made the claim based upon the idea that the media was unsympathic to their politial fortunes.

The whole point of the media was to try to be objective, not to care about how political participants did. "Balance," back then, did NOT mean that you showed equal bias towards both sides, it meant that you tried not to show bias. Give the information, leave it at that.

At the turn of the 1900s, the media was more like it was today, but then professional standards kicked in, and things like journalism schools started at colleges to teach those standards.

Nixon, Buchanan and others knew that an OBJECTIVE and fair media would be problems for them when their policies came to light, so they went on the propaganda war to demonize the messenger, and that has continued today. The media is criticized for reporting abuses and fiascos in Iraq, as if the problem wasn't with the abuses and fiascos, but with someone actually telling us about them.

Now we find that not only was the media NOT inflating the bad news, but the administration was intentionally underreporting the bad news.

The press and their role in informing the public is too important to make their mission to deliver whatever message or opinion people want to hear. They need to change media ownership to a more restrictive structure, where profitable "infotainment" takes a back seat to the job that news and networks used to have - delivering the news with certain objective standards instead of worrying about advertising profits.

The ultimate goal of a news organization shouldn't be profits, because sometimes the truth isn't sexy or popular.

Answer 3

I do believe the media is biased on both sides of the issue depending on who you are listening to. I don't believe however that the media is dishonest. The bias comes in a couple of forms.

Ratings - Ratings drive everything. Without them you do not continue to exist because they translate to real money in the form of advertising dollars. It is just a fact that bad news sells better than good news. This more than anything else drives the impression of bias.

Ideologies - I do believe there is an ideological component to the news. This appears in how the news is reported. There are definite ways to convey negative sentiments in how you choose to report and the anchors and commentators have become masters at this art.

Editorial Comment - Too often these days editorial comment is not labelled as such, it is presented as hard news. While the essense of those comments may not be untrue given a certain viewpoint they still should be distinguished from actual proved factual news.

Talkshows - Too many people want to label pundits like Hannity and Rush as though they should have the same credibility as actual news anchors. It is true that these people have influence with their audiences and thus effect debate, but they are not news sources and should not be considered as such. (See editorial comment above).

You can choose to accept or deny bias. We all have our interpretations, but it does exist. No one ever wants to believe that their side is biased because they are reporting the news they want to here. I hear alot of liberals complaining about Fox News, but not one word when CBS invents documents to support their contentions. The same is true of Conservatives regarding Fox and say ABC. We should all strive to get the facts and the only way to do this is check multiple sources.

Hayley: What an elitist load of crap that is. In order words Conservatives are just too stupid too understand how enlightened Liberals are and how much better off they would be if they just listened to them. So the news media plays to the intelligent set. Get this through your head, political leaning is not a sign of intelligence, it is an ideology. There are well educated and less educated people on both sides. Your opinion is indicative of exactly why there is a divide in this country.

Answer 4

I think that the media is clearly slanted both to the left and the right, there are clearly roughly equivelent 'outlets' for partisam thought on both sides of the ideological divide. Why? Simply political advocacy is market driven just like everything else. People choose to watch, listen and read things that they tend to agree with. This is why we dont have a pro-communistm pro-saddam and pro Osama national media outlet, it simply could not survive economically.

I think if there is a bias it tends to be a consequence of education - if you look at the blue state - red state divisons - blue states - the east and west coasts (blue states) are also demonstrably the states with a population that tends to be better educated. Liberals tend to be better educated. Journalists being among the more educated of our population tend towards a liberal belief system. Is this bias? I really dont think it is - bias is an unreasoned selection of a point of view, or a demonstrably unjustifiable one. I would suggest that if the media is more liberal its because educated and reasoned perspectives neccessitate acceptance of liberal leaning viewpoints. If you want unbiased reporting then perhaps we should require newspapers each day to have editorials from communists, fascists, dictators, luddites etc. Of course that ricghtly sounds absurd. The truth is the people in media inevitably color their reporting with their own viewpoints - it is unavoidable, but the far greater and more damaging influence is the degree to which the media on both sides merely reinforces the often poorly articulated and flip flopping opinions of their target market.

Answer 5

actual, in case you took a central authority direction in college, that's in all probability your professor instructed you that maximum newshounds tend to have a liberal bias If that's what you advise. seek for some books related to the character of government or political technological expertise one hundred and one and you will locate many which will carry that as a elementary guideline. i do no longer think of any sensible individual might call it a conspiracy. in certainty, that's in basic terms an much less complicated place to hold as a journalist for many reasons. that's what i found, besides.i'm no longer asserting this to be sarcastic. in basic terms think of roughly what I stated and then watch Alot of television. And confident of direction conservatives are biased in direction of the the terrific option. all of us is biased some way. that's the Human concern. yet conservatives do no longer in straightforward terms be counted on the shown fact that some media is biased. as far as i know you would be conservative and not believe Rush Limbaugh each and all the time.

Answer 6

1. Yes and no.
2. The influence of the con clowntards of afternoon radio is as profound on public opinion, as it is appalling. Ergo, the """liberal media""" would have to do a lot of digging themselves out of a hole to supercede the conservative media cartel in influence.
3. Of course they must take their sponsors into account. But more than this, I am always amused by conflict of interest in the media. Best case in point is the conflict of interest embedded in ABC because it's a Disney company. They are easy on Bush administration, specifically because Disney World is in Brother Jezbo's Florida, and is subject to tax leverage and regulatory threats from him if any link in the Disney chain steps out of line by telling people the truth the Bush Crime Family doesn't want them to hear.
4. The media is into viewership numbers at the cost of all else. That's why Britney not wearing underwear headlines ahead of the Iraq war and you'd think a story about one frantic 911 call they have the tape on is more important than the deaths of over 3000 Americans in Iraq. Human interest and entertainment industry news above all else. The imbalance comes into the picture at the point where people feel nonstories are the real news, and the real news is so boring -- or threatening -- the news media needs to keep it hid, where possible.

Peace

Answer 7

1. The media is biased towards maintaining ratings and political power and influence with both parties

2. Your assumption that real liberals or conservatives have any political power is at odds with the apparent lack of real core values of either party, their failure to keep promises, and the power of lobbyists to buy Congress

3. The media does not exist without corporate sponsors. Everything is geared towards making money for the establishment.

4. By your question, it is revealed that you know this to be true already.

Answer 8

Except for radio the media is HARDLY balanced. I really REALLY have to try hard to find a program that gives conservatives a fair view when flipping throug the channels. Watch abc news, nope allways slants liberal, cbs nope allways slants liberal, nbc nope allways slants liberal, cnn for the most part nope . Most of the time they give liberal slants. So NO it is definitley NOT balananced. If it were Fox News wouldn't be so popular.

If it were completley FAIR, we'd get a mouthful from the democrats for SURE!

Answer 9

You have only to watch most of the media with a critical eye to notice their extreme Liberal bias.

1. On election night, have you ever seen a more giddy crew than those on the Main stream media (msm).

2. Regardless of how good is being done in Iraq (building schools, saving the ill via surgery) is ANY of this reported?

3. Every time that an Islamic person commits a "hate crime" such as the Seattle killing of a Jew, why is the name of the suspect withheld, or they say he is "Asian" lol.

4. During the time that Jack Murtha was on TV every day hammering the war and saying we should "Cut and run" did you ever hear the media report he was one of the most corrupt members of congress? No, they said he was a war hero.
After the election, suddenly when Democrats started to oppose him being leader of the house, he is "Jack Murtha, who was entangled in the ABSCAM debacle"...bias...

The bias is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

Answer 10

It is biased towards ratings. Depending on the station stories are slanted one way or another to appeal to its audience. One of the few people who actually inform Americans about what is going on in this country is Lou Dobbs, like him or not.