Liberal Media, Fact or Fiction?

*Originally published on 1/8/09



Whenever someone brings up current events, there is always someone who says that the media is a far left engine that has lost all objectivity. People on the other side claim that it's a load of hogwash and that the people who make such claims are delusional. I'm going to take a fairly good look and try to settle this question once and for all.

This may seem like a cop out, but both sides are right. Now, every media outlet has their own bias. I think we can all agree on this, yes? So whether or not the media leans left or not really depends on where you look.

Even within television itself there isn't one set bias. Everyone's quick to say that Fox has a conservative bias. This is true. Still, people blast Fox saying that it's unreliable and that if you watch it you're uninformed. Really though, you can't look at me with a straight face and tell me that MSNBC is giving it to you straight. If you can, well than I hate to say it, but you're the one that's delusional. CNN is closer to the center, and their election coverage was quite fair, but at times you can still see the tilt left. This is why I try to counterbalance the bias through diversity. A bit of Fox and a bit of CNN, find the middle ground and you should be just fine.

Radio is a whole other beast entirely. Here, the bias is strongly conservative. With pundits like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham each having their own talk shows, it's impossible to say that the liberal bias is present in talk radio.

Newspapers and magazines are hard to say, as there are just so many of them. Truth be told I don't read much in the way of magazines or newspapers (see Sarah Palin, it's not difficult to just admit it). Most of my reading is regular books for recreation so I can't comment on whether or not they lean left or right. It's pretty much a case by case deal. Where you live will most likely have an impact. The newspapers in New York and the newspapers in Kansas will most likely provide two very different interpretations on the same news story.

The internet, well that's pretty liberal. The news stories that pop up on your home page will be fair. At least that's been the case for me, but many bloggers and their supporters are of liberal stripe to varying degrees.

Back in the day, news was an objective medium. With the outbreak of analysts and pundits who say that their job is to analyze the news and not report it, stations have been given a loophole to present their own perspective. There is no truly fair and balanced source for news anymore. The best you can do is to diversify your news sources, like you would a stock portfolio, and get all sides to the issue so that you can be an informed individual.