Truth about bias in the media

I'm really tired of people on the Left attacking the integrity of Fox News. The claim is that the channel is simply doing the dirty work of conservatives. Bill Clinton was the latest, attacking Chris Wallace and Fox News when asked a question. Many on the Left have also been claiming that the mass media in general has a conservative slant. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Last December, UCLA did a comprehensive, unbiased study of the slant in the mass media. The study is believed to be the "first successful attempt at objectively quantifying bias in a range of media outlets and ranking them accordingly." They looked at 20 different mass media news outlets - newspapers and TV news shows, mostly - and found that 18 of them were slanted to the Left.

Fox News was, not surprisingly, one of the two (along with the Washington Times) that were on the Right. However, Fox News was also the fourth closest of the 20 to Center. The news source that was the second furthest from Center: The New York Times.

The Drudge Report, which many on the Left claim is a Right Wing attack dog, actually falls to the Left, according to the study. And both the Drudge Report and Fox News were, according to the study, two of five news outlets in a "statistical dead heat in the race for the most centrist news outlet. "

So why do those on the Left insist on smeering Fox News? Two reasons. First, because it's the one news outlet that doesn't fall on the Left, and it threatens the Left's complete control of the major news outlets. Second, because many on the Left see themselves as Centrists; to them, anything in the Center is on the Right.

One point of interest is that National Public Radio is only the eighth most liberal of the 20 news outlets studied. I've listened to NPR over the years, and I've found it to be pretty balanced, so this didn't surprise me much.

Comments

[Lee]

OK...prove it next time you come home for a visit...

I'm in Brewster! ;-)

[Cyd]

Thanks for the chuckle, Lee. You proved my point: If I don't stand on the street and scream and jump up and down and complain about the Bush Administration every chance I get, then I "support a regime." If I'm not with you, I'm against you, eh?

And believe it sister - I'm as gay as they come.

[Lee]

It's really hard to believe you’re a gay man. Why do you support a “regime” which does everything to demonize us? They deny you the basic civil and human rights that the rest of America has and you stick up for them?! Don’t think for a minute that when they finally destroy the last vestiges of the Bill of Rights and suspend the Constitution, that you as a gay man won’t be rounded up with the rest of us on the “left”! You ‘rightness” won’t protect you. Nothing will.

Remember, we play for the same team.

[pkm1111]

The Wall Street Journal is predominantly conservative. The editorial pages are extremely conservative (and proud of it)! The reporting in the news pages is far more fair...see http://www.opinionjournal.com/about/philosophy.html especially: "So over the past century and into the next, the Journal stands for free trade and sound money; against confiscatory taxation and the ukases of kings and other collectivists; and for individual autonomy against dictators, bullies and even the tempers of momentary majorities."

[Brian]

First, I find it odd that you are quoting a press release from the very institution that performed the study. Of course they are going to call it the most comprehensive study ever conducted.

Anyway, I find the methodology used to conduct the study somewhat unreliable. The researchers explain that they were looking for key words in articles and stories, such as the names of think tanks. It would seem to me, and I am a published academic author, that looking up the names of certain think tanks would not be very condclusive. It could be that the media outlets are simply quoting those who have a comment to make, or are actually trying to be equal by quoting one think tank or another.

I also find the study odd because the researchers found that the Wall Street Journal is the most liberal. I receive the WSJ six times a week. I have never been able to tell if it is conservative or liberal.