Liberal Media Bias? Facts and Myths Regarding the Liberal Media
"A free press; Does the USA Really have one?"
.. when Murdoch moved into the USA he did not introduce a news service. He introduced right-wing political opinion into news broadcasts. That said, he will back a politician of either 'side' if he thinks he has the winner. One thing is certain, Murdoch is a politician who controls too much of the world media ..
December 31, 2013 Fact and Myth Liberal Media
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How do we define Liberal?
When deciding what we should consider conservative and liberal, it’s important to note that the paradigm has shifted to the right. What now passes as “liberal” in political discourse was once considered centrist if not moderately conservative. It’s important to note this when considering whether a policy being discussed is really liberal. So to put this in context; Richard Nixon expanded government (and proposed more expansion, which was actually prevented by Congress) (read more), was a proponent of renewable energy (read more), and proposed universal health care (read more). While modern fiscal conservatives are pushing for privatizing social security, Harry S Truman once wrote such people off as being a fringe minority and stupid (read more). Grover Norquist, an important figure in the modern conservative movement has openly stated his ideal society reflects early America, as he describes as the “first 120 years, up until Teddy Roosevelt, when the socialists took over.” (read more). The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which scaled back welfare assistance, was passed under the Clinton administration (read more). The tax structure has become less progressive over the years. What used to be a top marginal tax rate of 94% is now 35% (see trend here). And for all the talk about runaway government and tax burden, both are much smaller in the US than in most other industrialized nations (compare here).
This is rarely if ever revealed in the sound bytes and rhetorical battles that make up most of the political news coverage we see on network television. The user is left with no context from which to really draw a parallel from. The user if often left with the impression that taxes on the wealthy continually increase (and that the US is on this socialist spiral). Even the news outlets that are generally labeled as “liberal” rarely disclose this fact.
This may be why there exists a disparity between the way people identify themselves and the policies they support. According to the Gallup poll, far more people consider themselves conservative (40%) than liberal (12%) (see Gallup poll). However, when asked about specific policies (like raising taxes on the rich, or unionization, which are considered socialist/populist policies by conservative media/pundits) the disparity disappears, and public opinion is closer to 50/50 (see Gallup poll on taxing the rich and unionization). The reason is likely that many of the hard working and honest people who don’t see these policies as liberal, think of the word liberal as synonymous with something that looks like a movement from the 70’s. The word liberal has become somewhat taboo, and it’s the reason ‘liberals’ have begun to adopt the word progressive.
Proof by Anecdotes
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Media Matters vs Media Research Center
Media Matters is a watchdog group which monitors conservative bias in the media. Media Research Center does the same for liberal media bias. However, Media Matters is far more likely to use non-partisan sources like the Congressional Budget Office to weigh in on budget matters. The MRC continually catered to scare tactics about death panels (the argument that Obama’s health care plan would let seniors ‘expire’ for budgeting purposes) and really clung to the Climategate myth, citing the fact that it was hardly taken seriously by the mainstream media as more proof of liberal bias. There simply seems to be more substance coming from Media Matters. That being said, Media Matters largely ends up focusing on outlets like Fox News, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh so there is certainly no shortage of subject matter for them. Liberal by way of Accusation
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In Summary
The Liberal Media Bias theory doesn’t appear to hold up to scrutiny. A better explanation is that the playing field has shifted further to the right, making centrist positions simply appear liberal. Furthermore, because the right has been largely hijacked by free market extremists, the position representing the right often comes from well-funded think tanks posing as the other side of the story, which skewing the public’s perception of the political spectrum
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