Is there a bias in the media?

Question

if so, which way (conservative, liberal. Extra points if you show me some statistics statistics.)

Answer 1

Yes, there is bias in the media. Some of it is deliberate bias and a lot of it is non-intentional.

Take a wire service reporter covering the war in Iraq.

The reporter is restricted in what he can report upon, and to where he can go, by the US military in Iraq. If he does not comply, he will be expelled and restricted from access to military stories in the future.

The reporter may wish to report accurately, but his own prejudices colour how he looks at, and reports, a story. These prejudices are the result of the reporter's ethnicity, religion, nationality, person upbringing and his personal experiences.

Once the story is written and sent on the wire, it arrives at the regional office of the agency. Here it is edited further before being transmitted around the world. Again, the way the story is edited is subject to the personal biases of the editor.

The story arrives at the newspaper and is further edited by the "Foreign News Editor" to fit into the space upon the page in the newspaper plus to conform with the editorial policy of the newspaper. Here, two factors are at work, (a) the editors personal biases plus (b) the company's editorial policy.

At any point in this whole chain of events the story can be "spiked" and never progress further along the chain.

Answer 2

The last part is the easy part. There is no way of doing statistics on such matters.

Is there bias? Absolutely. Every reporter brings a set of experiences into a story, and that will slightly slant the story and its outlook.

That said, bias is far less of a problem than people think it is. Most of the stories are mere reciting of facts. Are business stories slanted to a particular viewpoint? Usually not. Lifestyle? Sports? Same thing. Even local news rarely has a political agenda.

I am willing to say that there are more liberals than conservatives in the media overall, as workers tend to prefer change to the status quo. It's more of a reflection on the reader when he or she claims bias, though -- usually it's not that obvious. Bias against certain people is much more common than against a viewpoint.

Oh, this does not include columnists and analysts -- they are paid to have opinions and be biased, and aren't part of the argument.

Answer 3

Of course there is bias. They only tell half a story..cover up a lot of storys and hate to go here but new is basically white oriented...all you hear about blacks, hispanics, etc are the bad things.Bias, oh you betch!!!

Answer 4

If the media leaned anymore to the left they'd be laying down.

Answer 5

well yes. look at nbc abc cnn they are all loosing points, but not fox t.v., because they are not affraid to be, true and balanced. we travel all over the place, even outside usa, every place we stop, all fox network, I think and (HOPE) the the far left is loosing.