Posted on 04/28/2012 6:13:59 AM PDT by kristinn
Charges of media bias have been flying like a bloody banner on the campaign trail. Newt Gingrich excoriated the “elite media” in a richly applauded moment during one of the Republican debates. Rick Santorum chewed out a New York Times reporter. Mitt Romney said this month that he faces “an uphill battle” against the press in the general election.
Meanwhile, just about every new poll of public sentiment shows that confidence in the news media has hit a new low. Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed by the Pew Research Center in the fall said the media “tend to favor one side” compared with 53 percent who said so in 1985.
But have the media really become more biased? Or is this a case of perception trumping reality?
In fact, there’s little to suggest that over the past few decades news reporting has become more favorable to one party. That’s not to say researchers haven’t found bias in reporting. They have, but they don’t agree that one side is consistently favored or that this favoritism has been growing like a pernicious weed.
SNIP
So why the rise in the public’s perception of media bias? A few possibilities:
l T he media landscape has changed.
There’s more media and more overtly partisan media outlets, too. The Internet has given rise to champions of the left — Huffington Post, Daily Kos, etc. — as well as more conservative organizations such as Drudge and Free Republic. This means your chance of running into “news” that seems biased has increased exponentially, elevating the impression that “bias” is pervasive throughout all parts of the media.
“There’s a kind of self-fulfilling perception to it,” said Robert Lichter, a pioneering media-bias researcher who heads the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Can't say I disagree here. For the past few decades, the media has been in the tank for the Dems. We on the right just have the means to make that clear now.
Well if academia agrees with journalists, it must be true.
Pray for America
I always rely on people employed by the main-stream media when they tell me how unbiased the main-stream media is.
After all, the reason we have an FDA is because companies that manufacture food and drugs are the best evaluators of their own products.
The reason we have an SEC is because banks and stock brokerage firms are the best evaluators of their own standards of behavior.
Do I really need the </s> tag?
THAT'S the reason. NOT the fact that YOU, the WASHINGTON POST, routinely ignores information damaging to the Obamas.... like, Fast and Furious, like the connections between operatives (Sandra Fluke, Hilary Rosen) and the Administration, and like the many bureaucratic abuses under Obama. NOT that you routinely editorialize to give cover to the Obamas, and NOT that your editorialization is steadily injected into your 'news'.
No no no. It's Free Republic.
Gotchya.
And the Libs pine for the good ol' days when America was propagandized and did not know it. But unfortunately for the Goebbelists, it takes but one time for the uninitated to be exposed to media bias of the left and these newly-aware people are forever wary of anything called "news". I know because I am one of these.
I'd agree, but consider where we were a few decades ago:
Environmental Cancer - A Political Disease?(1999)
...a further comparison - between the views of the two groups(environmental groups and cancer research groups)and the content of television and newspaper accounts over a two-decade period - shows that press reports most frequently cite the views of environmental activists as if they were the views of the scientific community. These findings cast doubt on the objectivity of the news media and environmental activists. And, the authors conclude, misplaced fears about the risks of environmental cancer have seriously distorted public policy and priorities.
Good Intentions Make Bad News: Why Americans Hate Campaign Jouralism(1995)
This text outlines how campaign journalism has evolved since the 1970s, concluding that media partisanship plays a disproportionate role in determining electoral outcomes.
This guy was right on top of the media bias back in the 90's when he wrote most of his insightful books on the media.
Delusions are very comforting when you are trying to maintain the illusion that organizations like The New York Times, NBC News, ABC News and the Washington Post itself are objective observers and reporters. This Robert Licter of George Mason University, tenured and liberal. Now there is no reason to suspect he is biased and no doubt his word on the subject should never be questioned. Another example where Americans are being conditioned to abandon personal critical thinking and accept the dictum of government sanctioned “experts”.
Comparing the news outlets and the internet sites is apples and oranges. One reports their version of the news and the other discusses it. The problem is “their version” is biased when it should be just the facts.
It may not be the reportage per se, but the method, frequency and tone.
While they may report on the malfeasance of a democRAT they rarely mention the party affiliation in the first few words as they do for a republican.
Also the choice of what leads above the fold, or ends up on page B12. That is the bias that is unspoken.
A glaring example is the Fast and Furious program, the birth certificate, et al. An absolute refusal to pursue issues that reflect badly on those that they are simpatico with amounts to bias.
It's obvious this guy has had a few sips of kool-aid. His 1990's books (past few decades?) stated the exact opposite of his statement today:
In fact, there’s little to suggest that over the past few decades news reporting has become more favorable to one party
And the Libs pine for the good ol’ days when America was propagandized and did not know it. But unfortunately for the Goebbelists, it takes but one time for the uninitated to be exposed to media bias of the left and these newly-aware people are forever wary of anything called “news”.
You might also add that as revenues decline for the various “newspapers” they have had to lay off more and more “real” reporters and have turned to large news disseminators like AP and Reuters for most of their non-local news. And that means that newspapers around the country all look like each other and have a homogenous point of view.
There's a big difference, sites like Huffington generates their own biased news to bolster MSM bias. We here at Free Republic read bias news and shred it apart.
Free Republic is pretty much a free-for-all of news that is out there, our 'bias' is the process of breaking down and debunking news that's bias.
Liars say they aren’t dishonest.
I don’t think the major networks and print media are outright biased in their reporting.... In the sense that they knowingly take sides on purpose....
Obviously cable outlets like MSNBC should run a disclaimer “We are ass clowns “ before broadcasting their shows
What they do is not report the other side or leave out information or not even report at all important aspects of stories... When they are unfavorable to their POV...
5.56mm
Think it would be something worth doing over a flagon or two of amusing brew?
WaPo op-ed title s/b “How Stupid and Gullible Do We Think The Public Is?”. Thanks kristinn.
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