The media isn't liberal

Well 3 days is more like it! If I understand your argument correctly, you make one basic points: 1. Conservatives say the media is liberal, but it really isn't. This makes people think the media is liberal. You justify this point by pointing to 'legends', testimonials by conservatives and of course we need to drum up the evil corporations. On the point of corporations, I agree in one aspect: corporations are profit maximizing organizations. I disagree that one can make a clear distinction between 'bad reporting' and 'politically biased reporting'. Politically biased reporting by definition is not 'fair'. Even with this, there is a place for biased reporting. I'm not convinced that the history of reporting has proven a consistent application of a 'fairness doctrine'. It may in fact be too much of a burden to put on reporters to get quality reporting. Advesarial reporting may be better in getting information diseminated in a form that people can make rational decisions. This aspect of the debate, the form of media, brings us to a question of what you define as media. In print, tv and public news outlets, I think that there is something to be said for a liberal media bias. Although, I think that when you get to the blogs, one finds much more in depth analysis and a strong libertarian and conservative bent. This I think is due to the fact that the traditional media outlets are in fact liberal and populated by liberals. To counter your quotes, I point you to: http://www.mediaresearch.org...... "The elephant in the newsroom is our narrowness. Too often, we wear liberalism on our sleeve and are intolerant of other lifestyles and opinions....We're not very subtle about it at this paper: If you work here, you must be one of us. You must be liberal, progressive, a Democrat. I've been in communal gatherings in The Post, watching election returns, and have been flabbergasted to see my colleagues cheer unabashedly for the Democrats." — Washington Post "Book World" editor Marie Arana in a contribution to the Post's "daily in-house electronic critiques," as quoted by Post media reporter Howard Kurtz in an October 3, 2005 article. "There is, Hugh, I agree with you, a deep anti-military bias in the media. One that begins from the premise that the military must be lying, and that American projection of power around the world must be wrong. I think that that is a hangover from Vietnam, and I think it's very dangerous. That's different from the media doing it's job of challenging the exercise of power without fear or favor." — ABC News White House correspondent Terry Moran talking with Los Angeles-based national radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, May 17, 2005. "I worked for the New York Times for 25 years. I could probably count on one hand, in the Washington bureau of the New York Times, people who would describe themselves as people of faith....I think one of the real built-in biases in the media is towards secularism....You want diversity in the newsroom, not because of some quota, but because you have to have diversity to cover the story well and cover all aspects of a society. And you don't have religious people making the decisions about where coverage is focused. And I think that's one of the faults." — Former New York Times reporter Steve Roberts, now a journalism professor at George Washington University, on CNN's Reliable Sources, March 27, 2005. "Personally, I have a great affection for CBS News....But I stopped watching it some time ago. The unremitting liberal orientation finally became too much for me. I still check in, but less and less frequently. I increasingly drift to NBC News and Fox and MSNBC." — Former CBS News President Van Gordon Sauter in an op-ed published January 13, 2005 in the Los Angeles Times. etc. etc. etc. And here are the people doing the fine reporting: http://www.mediaresearch.org... * Nearly half of the journalists surveyed agreed that "the very structure of our society causes people to feel alienated," while the authors found "five out of six believe our legal system mainly favors the wealthy." * 30 percent disagreed that "private enterprise is fair to workers;" 28 percent agreed that "all political systems are repressive." * 54 percent did not regard adultery as wrong, compared to only 15 percent who regarded it as wrong. * "Ninety percent agree that a woman has the right to decide for herself whether to have an abortion; 79 percent agree strongly with this pro-choice position." * Majorities of journalists agreed with the statements: "U.S. exploits Third World, causes poverty" (56%) and "U.S. use of resources immoral" (57%). Three-fourths disagreed that the "West had helped Third World." What I think is clear is that the traditional media hold liberal beliefs. I also think that it seeps into their reporting. I agree though with your quote of it not having much of an impact. I think that people generally have their beliefs reinforced and are not swayed. Fox has done very well in providing fair and balanced reporting :D I mention this because for once, liberals can now see the overt and not so overt biases that conservatives have been seeing for sometime. The fact there is a market for their service, reinforces my view that the traditional media is too liberal.