Does the media in America have a liberal or conservative bias?

Question

I was at a social function the other day and overheard some very interesting conversations. In one corner of the room there were people complaining about how the media is so liberal and in the same room, another group was talking about the conservative bias in our mainstream media. What do you guys think and why?

Just wanted everyone to know that I really appreciate the answers given. Many of you made good points and were very nice about it for the most part. I will have a very hard time picking the best answer since so many of you deserve the points.

Answer 1

The overwhelming majority of media newsrooms are Democrat voters, and more media people identify themselves as liberal as opposed to conservative.

Bernard Goldberg, himself a liberal Democrat in the media, wrote a book called "Bias", where he demonstrates the liberal bias that is in the media. His claim, and it makes sense if you think about it, is that when you have a newsroom where over 80% of the people vote Democratic, the natural bias of a common political belief is impossible to keep from coloring the news. This is because they don't notice the bias, because that is how they themselves think.

Not by design. But there comes a point where the bias is simply overwhelming, such as Dan Rather's "fake but accurate" accounts of Bush's alleged AWOL. When someone says it's not the accuracy of the documents, but the seriousness of the charge that matters, it's hard not to conclude they're completely blind to their bias.

There have been other studies that tallied up things like positive stories vs negative stories on presidential candidates (more positives for Dems, more negatives for Reps), or the use of charged words towards the left or right ("right-wing" vs "left-wing", "controversial" describing a Dem or a Rep, etc) and others that quite clearly show that most major media outlets have more negative stories about Republicans, and use more negatively charged words about Republicans.

I could also point to the general shock and dismay evident in many newscasts in the 1994 elections when the Republicans took control of Congress, as opposed to the celebratory atmosphere and outright giddiness of the newscasts in the 2006 elections, which saw Democrats regain control of Congress.

There are a lot of indicators that would cause a political litmus test to show them as "blue", but that would require having an open mind - an asset that doesn't appear as plentiful on the left as they like to assume.

Answer 2

It is because some Americans still educate themselves on the issues, and no longer trust the Mainstream Network media, and rightly so! Have you not seen the huge drop in the media news ratings? By the way, FOX is not competitive with MSNBC, they blow them away in nearly every category. The ratings do not determine whether a News organization is biased. The ratings usually determine whether or not the majority of Americans feel they can truat the reporting. Where are the clips of the Congressional hearings on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in which the Democrats implied that the regulators were racists for bringing the problems of these institutions to the Congress? Why won't the Mainstream Networks play these hearings and report the truth about who blocked the regulation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? The videos are on Youtube! Why not on the Mainstream Network News?

Answer 3

What an intelligent question. You will always have bias in media...regardless if it is conservative, liberal, socialist, communist, authoritarian, whatever. When you see or read about something in the media that concerns you, that doesn't directly have anything to do with you--in respect to getting complete and honest information--since, we can never get the complete picture unless we experience it FIRST HAND, you must analyze several different sources; you must read several different articles and watch several videos and use sources that you 'relatively' trust. There are sooo many different tactics that are used within political campaigning, it isn't funny. Parties will send stations created clips that "look" like "NEWS," but it is meant to persuade you to think a certain way. All parties are subject to this behavior. Its been done for many years. It was done during the Clinton/Bush election years...and we are going to see it, yet again. I actually think that this is quite an interesting phenomenon.

Answer 4

Underground has got it pretty close -- lazy, sensational and not particulary insightful or bright. Profit oriented. The "Liberal Media Bias" mantra of the Right wing is an easily disproved fiction. In the year 2000 the mainstream media was pro Bush and made Gore out to be a stiff nerd while Bush was a "regular guy" and they didn't scrutinize Bush at all. They supported Bush's invasion of Iraq and supposedly liberal New York Times had Judy Miller basically working as a mouthpiece for the Bush admistration, uncriticaly restating the Bush party line.

Answer 5

Funny, when I was in high school (graduated 1966) we had a discussion about how biased the media was one way or the other. What we discovered is that there are some media outlets that are skewed left of center, some skewed right of center and even a couple dead center. By consulting more than one media outlet and digesting what is said and how it is presented by each media outlet one can get a middle of the road relatively unbiased opinion of what is really happening. I still do that and am amazed how biased some of the media has become on both sides. But looking at both sides I still get a centerist view of world events.

Answer 6

The realistic answer is it depends on which media source you read, watch or listen to. I am liberal. There are some I completely disagree with and some I agree with. Most people will answer from the perspective of their own bias here, but if you look around you will find media to fit all perspectives.

Personally I do not like either the liberal or conservative biased media outlets. I prefer one that covers stories from the middle. If I disagree with their point of view sometimes and agree sometimes I figure I have found a decent one.

Answer 7

American Media is /huge/. Overally, it probably has a Liberal bias - if you measure from some theoretical 'middle' - but some media outlets are more biased than others, and some, like talk radio, defy the mode average and have a conservative bias.

How biased a media outlet looks to you tends to depend on where you sit on the political spectrum - if you're far right, everyone except Michael Savage seems to exhibit liberal bias. If you're far left, even mainstream networks start to look pretty conservative, and FOX News looks like it has Hitler's Brain as a programming director.

Answer 8

When polled most newspeople (about 2/3 ) admit that they are liberals ( this isnt an opinion im stating about an actual poll ).
So its only logical that the media in general will havea liberal bias.

Answer 9

Guess it depends on your point of view...if you think Ted Kennedy is a right winger then you would think the news is conservative...if you find Rush Limbaugh to be a commi socialist well you are thinking the media is liberal.

Also what is the "media"? Talk radio? Well that is more conservative than liberal. News papers? The NY Times...much more liberal.

I like to read/hear all I can - liberal & conservative.

Answer 10

It is split, the media is a business and reliant upon the funding provided by it's advertisers. They are going to cater to whatever special interest is providing them with the most money. It is a fairly even split between liberal and conservative bias.