Liberal media? I’m shocked!

Yeah, it's ridiculous I know. About as ridiculous as generalizing that the media is liberal.

kuv....good to see ya, old chum.

What you speak to (and it's covered in some of what you've linked) is the factor that the Pew study centers on in its overview, and which our author doesn't mention...that news people are most concerned that the direction and quality of modern news has been "seriously hurt" by bottom-line considerations.



Briefly, let's take the following...
Note the shift to "liberal" from "especially liberal". The entire purpose and meaning of the question responded to is made null. And that's done to equate the NY Times and Fox, which, of course, was not what the survey demonstrated. That's a typical move from townhall writers, and it's but another ironic instance of screed pretending to be journalism.

Or take this piece...
There's a neat trick here. The customers don't want these 'left-leaning' sources they disagree with, so are stampeding away. It's a market thing...preferences are demonstrated by audience. That's the reason Fox or Rush are OK...they're successful, therefore people obviously want them.

But it is precisely sources such as the NY Times or Salon or the New Yorker or Atlantic or the Boston Globe or the New York Review of Books or CBC which DO succeed in the marketplace. The paper or magazine or newshow isn't supported by donations from Soros or the government, but by purchasers. Townhall is precisely an example of the opposite...it came into being, and it survives only because of partisan donation. So where is the stampede actually pointing?

True, which I why I prefer to express it as the media, in general, has a liberal bias. Does every media outlet have a liberal bias? No. Is every member of the media a liberal? No. In general, does the media have a liberal bias? Yes.

This debate is ridiculous unless we have a clear definition of what liberal really means.

Perhaps.

It's gets boring pretty quickly too.

On to something else.

I'd be happy to shift over into slurs on the Irish.

bernie, if you want to see how faux games the viewer figures to promote itself, check this link out.


http://www.fair.org/extra/0404/fox-ratings.html

at the end of the day, it is money that talks and faux's bull$hit walks.

Okay here's some research data and some additional ammunition.

The point is, a huge majority of mainstream media anchors and talking heads are registered Democrats, take the liberal stance on most issues, and condemn the conservative viewpoint on most issues. When people depend on these 'gurus' for their information, they will likely develop a different point of view than would happen if more balanced information was available.


http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ED062796b.cfm

http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/welcome.asp

http://secure.mediaresearch.org/news/identifybias.html

http://www.stats.org/record.jsp?type=news&ID=75

http://thatliberalmedia.com/

http://www.brianclardy.com/04182003.html

http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2002/fax20021114.asp

http://www.touchstonemag.com/docs/issues/16.3docs/16-3pg23.html

A few comments by members OF the media:


"I thought he [former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg] made some very good points. There is just no question that I, among others, have a liberal bias. I mean, I'm consistently liberal in my opinions. And I think some of the, I think Dan [Rather] is transparently liberal. Now, he may not like to hear me say that. I always agree with him, too, but I think he should be more careful." -- CBS's 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney on Goldberg's book, Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, on CNN's Larry King Live, June 5, 2002

"Most of the time I really think responsible journalists, of which I hope I'm counted as one, leave our bias at the side of the table. Now it is true, historically in the media, it has been more of a liberal persuasion for many years. It has taken us a long time, too long in my view, to have vigorous conservative voices heard as widely in the media as they now are. And so I think yes, on occasion, there is a liberal instinct in the media which we need to keep our eye on, if you will." -- ABC anchor Peter Jennings appearing on CNN's Larry King Live, April 10, 2002

"There is a liberal bias. It's demonstrable. You look at some statistics. About 85 percent of the reporters who cover the White House vote Democratic, they have for a long time. There is a, particularly at the networks, at the lower levels, among the editors and the so-called infrastructure, there is a liberal bias. There is a liberal bias at Newsweek, the magazine I work for ?-- most of the people who work at Newsweek live on the upper West Side in New York and they have a liberal bias....[ABC White House reporter] Brit Hume's bosses are liberal and they're always quietly denouncing him as being a right-wing nut." ?- Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Evan Thomas in an admission on Inside Washington, May 12, 1996.

"Everybody knows that there's a liberal, that there's a heavy liberal persuasion among correspondents." -- Walter Cronkite, March 21, 1996 Radio & TV Correspondents Dinner.

"There are lots of reasons fewer people are watching network news, and one of them, I'm more convinced than ever, is that our viewers simply don't trust us. And for good reason. The old argument that the networks and other `media elites' have a liberal bias is so blatantly true that it's hardly worth discussing anymore. No, we don't sit around in dark corners and plan strategies on how we're going to slant the news. We don't have to. It comes naturally to most reporters.....Mr. Engberg's report set new standards for bias....Can you imagine, in your wildest dreams, a network news reporter calling Hillary Clinton's health care plan 'wacky?'...
"?'Reality Check' suggests the viewers are going to get the facts. And then they can make up their mind. As Mr. Engberg might put it: `Time Out!' You'd have a better chance of getting the facts someplace else -- like Albania." ?- CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg on an anti-flat tax story by CBS reporter Eric Engberg, February 13, 1996 Wall Street Journal op-ed.
"I won't make any pretense that the American Agenda is totally neutral. We do take a position. And I think the public wants us now to take a position. If you give both sides and 'Well, on the one hand this and on the other that'--I think people kind of really want you to help direct their thinking on some issues." ?- ABC News reporter Carole Simpson on CNBC's Equal Time, August 9, 1994.

"We're unpopular because the press tends to be liberal, and I don't think we can run away from that. And I think we're unpopular with a lot of conservatives and Republicans this time because the White House press corps by and large detested George Bush, probably for good and sufficient reason, they certainly can cite chapter and verse. But their real contempt for him showed through in their reporting in a way that I think got up the nose of the American people." ?- Time writer William A. Henry III on the PBS November 4, 1992 election-night special The Finish Line.

"There is no such thing as objective reporting...I've become even more crafty about finding the voices to say the things I think are true. That's my subversive mission." ?- Boston Globe environmental reporter Dianne Dumanoski at an Utne Reader symposium May 17-20, 1990. Quoted by Micah Morrison in the July 1990 American Spectator.

fedral

I'll not bother pasting in the contrasting quotes from Kristol et al which you've already seen.

Actually I believe Eric Alterman did a great book on debunking the "Liberal Media" and Kusvaz is right too!

Neo

Alterman's book is a really splendid example of competent and rigorous journalism. I don't think there is a single 'conservative' on this site who has been courageous enough to actually read the analysis at all.

I have read as much of Alterman's book as I could stomach, Blatham. Have you read Bernard Goldberg's "Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News"?

Having some experience in the field, I'm going with Goldberg's viewpoint (along with every credible poll out there supporting his viewpoint and calling into question Alterman's research.)

No, I haven't read it yet. But I know I have to, so I guess I better pick it up tomorrow.

What polls call Alterman's work into question? What polls could? To call his work into question will require careful analysis of his claims and the evidence for them.

Actually I belive Goldman's work was debunked as well.

neo

It has been criticized, and I've read some of those criticisms, but I haven't yet put it to the test.

Again, it is worth emphasizing the point clearly made by Finn D'Abuzz that the Pew Report found that 34% of the reporters identified themselves as Liberal while only 7% identified themselves as conservative.

http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040524.asp

Please, no more strawmen like "Townhall".

Address the Pew Report finding above.

Yes, and no one has adequately and directly addressed the copious evidence brought forward by Foxfyre and Fedral that the media is much more liberal than conservative.

Why not?

source

The post above is a good one but it does not address the question as to whether the media is more liberal than conservative. It speaks to the question as to "whether any national daily organization is ESPECIALLY liberal in its views" and to the question as to whether there is 'AN organization which is especially conservative"

This does not speak to the central issue-

Whether the media is more liberal than conservative.

Again, the finding of the Pew Poll---

quote

"Five times more national outlet journalists describe themselves as liberal, 34 percent, than conservative, a mere 7 percent"