The media is biased!

USNA81
Tue, 01 Aug 2006 19:02:35 +0000

Bill0510, these are my observations:

1. I conceded in my first post that bias is in the eye of the beholder and I don’t need a scientific study prove the sun rises in the east. The link was to the Washington Post and not the study, but I assume the paper was faithful to the results.

2. I provided a link to a UCLA synopsis of a scientific study concluding that the media is biased which was published in a reputable journal. The study was dismissed, “While an interesting approach, I don’t necessarily agree with the premise” yet no reasoning was offered as to why the methodolgy would lead to erroneous results.

3. I postulated that if the media was balanced that half of individuals would find the media too liberal and half would find the media too conservative (the logical conclusion of the first article). I provided links which stated that almost half of those polled thought the media was too liberal and one third thought the media was balanced. The scientific poll was conducted by the reputable polling firm Gallup. You chose to hone in on another conclusion that about half Americans trust the media-- I trust the media as a whole only because I can choose my news sources and thus counter the majority of left-leaning news sources. You dismiss the article with the blanket statement “figures lie and liars figure”, with that philosophy I assume you always go to the original poll or study (although you did not in the original article, presumably because you intellectually agree with the findings).

I don’t always disagree with the liberal media. I do agree with a 2004 article by Daniel Okrent, the public editor of the New YorK Times. Here is an excerpt:

"I’ll get to the politics-and-policy issues this fall (I want to watch the campaign coverage before I conclude anything), but for now my concern is the flammable stuff that ignites the right. These are the social issues: gay rights, gun control, abortion and environmental regulation, among others. And if you think The Times plays it down the middle on any of them, you’ve been reading the paper with your eyes closed.

But if you’re examining the paper’s coverage of these subjects from a perspective that is neither urban nor Northeastern nor culturally seen-it-all; if you are among the groups The Times treats as strange objects to be examined on a laboratory slide (devout Catholics, gun owners, Orthodox Jews, Texans); if your value system wouldn’t wear well on a composite New York Times journalist, then a walk through this paper can make you feel you’re traveling in a strange and forbidding world."

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E7D8173DF936A15754C0A9629C8B63&sec=&pagewanted=1

Bill Kristol is the poor balance (as in “Fair and Balanced”) to Mara Liason. Charles Krauthammer happens to be the most logical person on TV or print, it must be his training as a doctor.