Thread: Media Bias

Originally Posted by Bane

Umm excuse me? If you call FOX News biased then you have to also state that CNN, NBC, ABC, etc are all biased as well. In fact, FOX News is the only other news station that provides additional viewpoints compared to the one sided litany that we hear everyday. I see it as all news stations are biased. Only FOX news happens to provide a broader viewpoint, something that is drastically needed in media. I see having one sided representation as being more un-American than FOX news.

Is this serious? I honestly can't tell.

Originally Posted by Bane

Umm excuse me? If you call FOX News biased then you have to also state that CNN, NBC, ABC, etc are all biased as well. In fact, FOX News is the only other news station that provides additional viewpoints compared to the one sided litany that we hear everyday. I see it as all news stations are biased. Only FOX news happens to provide a broader viewpoint, something that is drastically needed in media. I see having one sided representation as being more un-American than FOX news.

ROFL, someone sounds like a Fox News commercial. I hope you don't honestly believe this, though.

Equally biased? This has been the backup argument to Fox news subscribers for years now. "Well, ok, it's not balanced, but it's equally biased in the opposite direcftion, to balance things out."

Bullshit. Fox News is has a systematic, from the top, right wing agenda. All of its shows range from moderate to extreme right wing. It's viewers have been shown to be the most uninformed, with beliefs that are far right of reality. source (caution, pdf). They've been found to be the most slanted news organization by a number of studies that looked at the makeup of their guests and the ratio of positive/negative stories by party. source (this is a summary page, but it cites its sources)

Aside from MSNBC which is pretty left-wing, none of the other news stations come close to this. There may be some bias (I haven't seen it) due to the reporters being left-wing, but it's not systematic.

Originally Posted by WickedTribe

Aside from MSNBC which is pretty left-wing, none of the other news stations come close to this. There may be some bias (I haven't seen it) due to the reporters being left-wing, but it's not systematic.

Not to mention they openly campaign for Republicans, organize right-wing events, and propagate far-right rumors as if they are truth.

Originally Posted by WickedTribe

Equally biased? This has been the backup argument to Fox news subscribers for years now. "Well, ok, it's not balanced, but it's equally biased in the opposite direcftion, to balance things out."

Bullshit. Fox News is has a systematic, from the top, right wing agenda. All of its shows range from moderate to extreme right wing. It's viewers have been shown to be the most uninformed, with beliefs that are far right of reality. source (caution, pdf). They've been found to be the most slanted news organization by a number of studies that looked at the makeup of their guests and the ratio of positive/negative stories by party. source (this is a summary page, but it cites its sources)

Aside from MSNBC which is pretty left-wing, none of the other news stations come close to this. There may be some bias (I haven't seen it) due to the reporters being left-wing, but it's not systematic.

I have to disagree with this one Wicked....there are many studies all over the net that show bias (one way or another) and several theories to explain what might cause it. Fox is hardly the only one, and stating that it is "the most" biased is subjective and you know it.

I can say these things as I do not watch Fox or like Fox or its presenters (not that I like any of them and to be honest, the TV is generally never on in my home).

The PIPA study you cited dealt only with misconceptions related to the Iraq War. It is, therefore, unfair to spin that result to then apply to all ideas held by viewers of Fox.

Viewers of Fox News held misconceptions about the Iraq War (I do not disagree in general), but implying, based off of that study alone, they are always uninformed and unrealistic is a faulty argument (generalization). It would be akin to someone claiming that all viewers of _______ were generally uninformed because of one misconception of a "current event".

The second article (source) you linked (with sources) needs citations to back up some of its claims...so no source? The citations that do have links back to sources are mainly youtube videos recording spoken claims made by people who are no fans of Fox, or from the White House.

Additionally, the 3 media "watchdog" groups that are cited in the article are 3 self-identified "liberal leaning" organizations. So it would only stand to reason that they, being naturally (subjectively) opposed to Fox News, would find them (Fox) biased. As I said earlier - Bias is a purely subjective thing from the individual's perspective. The same could be said if one looks at the individual organization in light of it's admitted leanings.

link

An academic study cited frequently showing a liberal media bias in American journalism is The Media Elite,* a 1986 book co-authored by political scientists Robert Lichter, Stanley Rothman, and Linda Lichter. They surveyed journalists at national media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and the broadcast networks. The survey found that most of these journalists were Democratic voters whose attitudes were well to the left of the general public on a variety of topics, including such hot-button social issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and gay rights. Then they compared journalists' attitudes to their coverage of controversial issues such as the safety of nuclear power, school busing to promote racial integration, and the energy crisis of the 1970s.

The authors concluded that journalists' coverage of controversial issues reflected their own attitudes, and the predominance of political liberals in newsrooms therefore pushed news coverage in a liberal direction. They presented this tilt as a mostly unconscious process of like-minded individuals projecting their shared assumptions onto their interpretations of reality.

The Media Elite

Concerning political beliefs: 54 per cent of the journalists described their views as left of center, 29 per cent as "middle of the road," and only 17 per cent as right of center. The authors argue that this ratio of more than three liberal journalists for each conservative contrasts sharply with the distribution among the American public: every relevant poll conducted in the decade from 1975 to 1985 found conservatives outnumbering liberals in the electorate, often by a ratio of three to two or more.

Of course, partisan or ideological labels provide only a very rough indication of political orientation. Thus one of the great strengths of the Media Elite survey is that it also included several sets of more precise questions about political attitudes and behaviors. One set asked how the journalists had voted in each of the last four presidential elections (i.e., 1964–76). It produced what is now probably the most frequently quoted datum in the media bias debate: Among elite journalists who voted for a major party candidate, support for the more liberal Democratic contender ranged from 81 per cent for George McGovern and Jimmy Carter, to 87 per cent for Hubert Humphrey, to a high of 94 per cent for Lyndon B. Johnson.

...
The authors also sought to provide insight into the future by conducting a separate survey of students at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, a principal training ground for prospective members of the media elite. They found that while the students were more diverse in race and gender than the existing elite they were even more homogeneous in background and beliefs. In particular, self-described liberals outnumbered conservatives 85 per cent to 11 per cent, a ratio of almost eight to one.

I also found this tidbit interesting:

In January 2010, Public Policy Polling reported that Fox News was the most trusted news source with 49% of respondents stating that they trusted Fox News. According to the poll, Fox News also scored the lowest level of distrust with 37%. The report found a lot of political polarization in which news outlets people trust: 74% of Republicans polled trusted Fox News, but no more than 23% trusted any of the other four sources (ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC). Conversely, a majority Democrats trust all of ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC while only 30% had faith in Fox News.

Public Policy Polling

Public Policy Polling (PPP) is an American, Progressive, and Democratic Party-affiliated polling firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina. PPP was founded in 2001 by businessman and Democratic pollster Dean Debnam, the firm's current president and chief executive officer. The neutrality of PPP's surveys has been questioned since the firm's private clients are exclusively Democratic-affiliated organizations, and because surveys on health care reform have included polarizing questions such as if respondents think President Barack Obama is the "Antichrist".

Bias exists - for everyone - no surprise.

Originally Posted by Consultant

Have you ever heard Ted Turner rant from his left wing perch? Please dude...CNN has a systematic top-down bias also...Ted Turner is the Liberal version of Rupert Murdoch. He got a gabillion bucks, invented a news network, and hired anchors, directors, producers and writers who agree with him and they crank out an editorialized version of the news with a slant toward their political philosophy. They have every right to do so as well. I'm not saying it's wrong - but to pretend that CNN's (or whoever) coverage is not shaded according to the vision of the white man writing the pay checks is ignorant.

Show me where CNN, MSNBC, or any other news source is actively campaigning for Democratic candidates, organizing left-wing rallies, and running left-wing rumors unsourced. Fox News does all of those thing for Republican candidates and right-wing rallies. They set up many of the Teabagging rallies. How is that a legitamite news source? If you reply to "Fox News is biased" with "Well, they all are," you are just trying to justify their practices without actually addressing them. No one is arguing other news sources' biases, just Fox's.

Actually - Wicked said that Fox was biased and the others (with the exception of MSNBC) were not.

Originally Posted by WickedTribe

Aside from MSNBC which is pretty left-wing, none of the other news stations come close to this. There may be some bias (I haven't seen it) due to the reporters being left-wing, but it's not systematic.

My contention is that they all are. I am not trying to justify one more than the others. I am simply stating that all of the so-called news organizations (and that goes for the cable/network/print) are all biased in one way or another. The simpl economics of delivering news to "news consumers" demands it.