Liberal media

[Paladin]

Is there really such a thing? I happen to agree with ol HD Thoreau that the news is largely just gossip, but isn't the term "Liberal Media" just a straw man?

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by Paladin

Is there really such a thing? I happen to agree with ol HD Thoreau that the news is largely just gossip, but isn't the term "Liberal Media" just a straw man?

I've never been sure what the idea of a liberal media means.

[wil]

Cato Institute did a survey...they are a right leaning political think tank...

Thier goal was to prove the liberal media theory...

And they went through radio, television, newspapers, TV

So we have ABC, NBC, CBS, PT, FOX, CNN

And NPR, PBS, and talk radio

Washington Post to Washington Times.

They discovered with their criteria...when you move away from the op-ed pages and the opinion portion of any news media....there is less than 5% difference between the right and left wing leaning reporting.

And as far as when it goes editorial...the conservatives are typically more bold and in your face....the liberal end does it through satire, comedy and inuendo...

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by Paladin

Is there really such a thing? I happen to agree with ol HD Thoreau that the news is largely just gossip, but isn't the term "Liberal Media" just a straw man?

Everyone sees the world through the filter of their own biases. A person, even a news reporter, will tend to focus their attention on what's happening that their interests judge as being important, and will tend to ignore the happenings that their interests judge as being unimportant. I would say that the term "Liberal Media" refers to those media outlets that focus more on "liberal-minded interests," {whatever that means.}

[littlemissattitude]

Here in the States, people have mostly been convinced that the media is "liberal" because the conservative media and pundits have been repeating that the media is made up of big, bad liberals for the past ten or fifteen years. Repeat anything long enough and loud enough and people will begin to believe it.

I just finished reading an interesting book on the subject today, coincidentally. It is What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News, by Eric Alterman. Interesting book which, among other things, makes the point that while some reporters are social liberals, they are more often than not economic conservatives. Anyway, how reporters feel about issues doesn't really control what gets published or broadcast. Editors, publishers, and above all owners of media outlets (and there are fewer and fewer people owning more and more of the outlets these days) set the tone for publications and broadcasts and they all tend to be much more often conservative than liberal...especially the owners.

Alterman writes from a liberal point of view, and so his book contains a certain amount of hyperbole as he makes his argument. Still, the points he makes are valid, and valuable.