Is anything that doesn't agree with or prover Conservative views automatically deemed "liberal bias"

Question

I find that many people consider major broadcasting networks and many cable networks to have a liberal bias, when myself as a liberal, I find it not true and that many have conservative biases sometimes as well.. Is it in the eye of the beholder? Or is it really that Conservatives only feel that media is fair when it reaffirms their beliefs, and when it disagrees with them it is automatically Liberal?

"prove" not "prover"... : )

With the exception of Air America, Free Speech TV, Liberty News, etc. which obviously are very liberal.

Hmm, ray, I see your point.

As a more left-leaning person, I tried listening to Air America Radio, but I did not like it. Why? It's not objective enough. It is the exact opposite of conservative talk radio, in that it only views things from one perspective, and they're ALWAYS right.

I think the reason liberal media outlets are not as huge are because most liberals do not want a narrow-scoped bias source for their news; they want a broad-perspective, objective source for their news. Liberal media has its supporters though, and it is the extreme left wing who is as narrow-minded as the extreme right wing, but much smaller in numbers.

I like any news outlets that report from an objective standpoint, no matter what the subject. I want to hear differing opinions and make up my own mind, not be told what is right or wrong or get skewed or spun information. I think most intelligent, truth-seeking people want the same.

Answer 1

By extremist conservative standards, sure - just like anything that doesn't toe the politically-correct line is 'biased' in the eyes of more radical liberals.

Answer 2

YOu are absolutely right.

A year ago when there were calls to cut off funding for public radio and TV, the conservatives were complaining of liberal bias in those venues. Republicans hired some company do a survey of guests on various programs and whether they were conservative or liberal and the company reported that there was a very left-slanted lineup.

However, an independent review of that report revealed a strong bias in the survey. If any guest on those programs said anything critical of the President or his policies, they were labeled as a liberal. Even staunch conservatives, if they criticized the President, were counted as liberals. So, the survey was NOT counting the ideological slant of the guests but it was counting the conformity with the Bush White House. Instead of realizing that there was broad discontent with the presidents courses of action, they just "blamed the liberals".

Joseph Goebbels would have been proud.

Answer 3

The mainstream media cannot said to be either Liberal or Conservative biased, per say, for the simple reason that all the mainstream media is owned and controlled by the globalist elite/Illuminati, and therefore is biased toward the New World Order agenda! It is all propaganda, and what isn't outright lies, is only partial truth. In other words, they tell us exactly what they want us to believe, and some of it has some truth in it, but only surface truth. Sometimes it appears to lean left, and sometimes it appears to lean to the right, but that is only appearance! They are not interested in what is good for the people, and anything they do that appears to be noble, always has a hidden, ulterior motive! They are interested in keeping us appeased just enough so that we will not rise up in unity to revolt! But, otherwise they don't care anything about us. They just want to keep us under control! *sm*

Answer 4

No, in fact until not too many years ago, we conservatives had no alternatives but to listen to the liberal news and views or read the biased newspapers.

Now that WE finally have an outlet, which is apparently considered to be a threat to those who disagree with our conservative views. Please take note as to how many times Fox news is brought up here on this forum day after day, and generally is sarcastically brought up by the libs.

I quit watching ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN many years ago. You folks had the media cornered and pretty much still do.

Answer 5

Well, look at some of the scandals the media has faced in recent years.

Reuters had to fire a photographer after said photog got caught Photoshopping pictures of Beruit that made Isreal look bad. Not exactly a right-leaning slant, is it?

The New York Times recently published a story in a weekly that they *knew* was incorrect, but the story made the military look bad. Again, not exactly right-leaning.

CNN had to fire some idiot for making wild, unfounded allegations that the American military was intentionally targeting journalists. Definitely more of a left-wing attitude towards the military.

The LA Times got caught printing a Photoshopped picture that showed a British soldier pointing a gun at an Iraqi child. NOT what happened. And certainly *not* a conservative way to treat the military.

The Washington Post has in their employ a particularly VILE liberidiot who called our troops "mercenaries", whined about their "obscene amenities" and implied *very* heavily that our returning troops should be grateful they aren't being spit on.

And, of course, the whole CBS memo scandal.

Please - if you have examples like this for the right, I'd sincerely love to see them. But until I see proof of that, I'm going to stick with my belief that our media is *very* liberal.

Answer 6

It's in the eye of the beholder! and cut it out with the conservative talk show crap. The reason conservative talk show is on is because IT WORKS. You had your shot with "Air America" and guess what, it FLOPPED, because most people who actually listen to radio are sick and tired of all of the liberal crap and we CHOOSE not to listen. No listeners, NO RATINGS, no ratings, no advertisers. It's called the FREE MARKET but since when did a Liberal ever like the free market?

Answer 7

Throwing the word "liberal" around is just a crutch that conservatives without a real argument use. It's easier to call somebody a "liberal" then it is to think about and make a decent argument.

Children frequently use this tactic on the playground.

Answer 8

Yes.....funny how we never heard about the "liberal biased" media until George Bush started f*cking everything up.....can't change the message, kill the messenger....when I was hearing about Monica's stain on her dress for months, that must have been the conservative media.

Answer 9

if anything strays from the conservative view its 'liberal'
even moderate republicans are considered liberal

Answer 10

I think you hit the nail on the head.

Talk radio shows how profoundly the FCC's repeal of the Fairness Doctrine has affected political discourse. In recent years almost all nationally syndicated political talk radio hosts on commercial stations have openly identified themselves as conservative, Republican, or both: Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, Michael Reagen, Bob Grant, Ken Hamblin, Pat Buchanan, Oliver North, Robert Dornan, Gordon Liddy, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, et al. The spectrum of opinion on national political commercial talk radio shows ranges from extreme right wing to very extreme right wing - there is virtually nothing else.

On local stations, an occasional nonsyndicated moderate or liberal may sneak through the cracks, but there are relatively few such exceptions. This domination of the airwaves by a single political perspective clearly would not have been permissible under the Fairness Doctrine.

Eugene is fairly representative. There are two local commercial political talk and news radio stations: KUGN, owned by Cumulus Broadcasting, the country's second largest radio broadcasting company, and KPNW, owned by Clear Channel Communications, the largest such company. On local stations, an occasional nonsyndicated moderate or liberal may sneak through the cracks, but there are relatively few such exceptions. This domination of the airwaves by a single political perspective clearly would not have been permissible under the Fairness Doctrine.

KUGN's line-up has three highly partisan conservative Republicans - Lars Larson (who is regionally syndicated), Michael Savage and Michael Medved (both of whom are nationally syndicated), covering a nine-hour block each weekday from 1 p.m. until 10 p.m. Each host is unambiguous in his commitment to advancing the interests and policies of the Republican party, and unrelenting in his highly personalized denunciation of Democrats and virtually all Democratic Party policy initiatives. That's 45 hours a week.

For two hours each weekday morning, KUGN has just added nationally syndicated host Bill O'Reilly. Although he occasionally criticizes a Republican for something other than being insufficiently conservative, O'Reilly is clear in his basic conservative viewpoint. His columns are listed on the Townhall.com web site, created by the strongly conservative Heritage Foundation. That's 55 hours of political talk on KUGN each week by conservatives and Republicans. No KUGN air time is programmed for a Democratic or liberal political talk show host.

KPNW carries popular conservative Rush Limbaugh for three hours each weekday, and Michael Reagan, the conservative son of the former president, for two hours, for a total of 25 hours per week.

Thus, between the two stations, there are 80 hours per week, more than 4,000 hours per year, programmed for Republican and conservative hosts of political talk radio, with not so much as a second programmed for a Democratic or liberal perspective.

For anyone old enough to remember 15 years earlier when the Fairness Doctrine applied, it is a breathtakingly remarkable change - made even more remarkable by the fact that the hosts whose views are given this virtual monopoly of political expression spend a great deal of time talking about "the liberal media."

Political opinions expressed on talk radio are approaching the level of uniformity that would normally be achieved only in a totalitarian society, where government commissars or party propaganda ministers enforce the acceptable view with threats of violence. There is nothing fair, balanced or democratic about it. Yet the almost complete right wing Republican domination of political talk radio in this country has been accomplished without guns or gulags.

And yet, the conservative agenda is and remains singularly unpopular with the population at large, as evidenced by the fact that the GOP can only win elections by hiding its true objectives and playing moderate, running scorched-earth campaigns of personal destruction, smear and slander, intimidation of minority voters and other means of depressing voter turnout - and even then only barely. As Rush Limbaugh gets never tired of telling his white, male and angry audience - it must be someone else's fault. Unable to face the fact that a majority of the population simply does not want theocracy, social darwinism and corporate supremacy, they had to find a scapegoat - or invent one if needed. Thus The Liberal Media myth was born.
The Liberal Media myth is a propaganda tool employed by conservative radio hosts, columnists and pundits as a convenient excuse why after 20 years their ideology has failed to convince the public at large, and as a memetic inocculation of the public against the evidence that the media bias is in fact a conservative one.

Not only does the liberal media claim have no basis in fact, it also does not make sense considering the issues of media ownership and influence of advertisers. Most media outlets are owned by a handful of conservative corporations and individuals, and funded by usually economically conservative advertisers who have no need for an educated, alert, independent and critical citizenry. What they need is a dumb, bored, cynical and apathetic public that has abandoned all critical faculties and is easily distracted by celebrity gossip and mindless sports games. A public that will believe anything it is told, or nothing at all, which amounts to the same end result. This pro-corporate conservative bias of the media is well-documented and shows itself in consistent under-reporting or ignoring of any information that would lead people to question the fundamental status quo.